Bruce Flatt put Wall Street’s biggest private equity players on notice that the Canadian juggernaut was coming for them three years ago.
The head of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. told Bloomberg Television then that his firm -- pushing into private equity -- should be mentioned in the same breath as Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP and KKR & Co. It was an unusually brash statement from the understated Winnipeg native.
He’s more than backed it up.
On Wednesday, Brookfield Asset Management agreed to buy a majority stake in Oaktree Capital, a move that will create a $475 billion alternative-investing behemoth. That’s more assets under management than any of the other blue-chip buyout firms reported at year-end.
The transaction caps a flurry of deal-making across Flatt’s investing empire of four publicly traded companies focused on real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy and private equity.
“I don’t think Brookfield has grown quickly,” said Mark Rothschild, an analyst in Toronto with Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. “They’ve been growing quite a bit. But this has been going on for decades.”
Brookfield Business Partners LP, the firm’s private equity arm, agreed to buy Johnson Controls International Plc’s car battery business for $13.2 billion in November, beating suitors including Apollo Global Management LLC. In January, it struck a deal worth $3.2 billion for Healthscope Ltd., winning a 10-month takeover battle for the hospital operator.
Forest City
Brookfield also struck two jumbo real estate deals last year.
Brookfield Asset Management paid about $6.8 billion for Forest City Real Estate Trust Inc. Real estate affiliate Brookfield Property Partners LP bought the rest of GGP Inc. that it didn’t already own for about $15 billion.