Big PE is shrugging off tariffs and capital constraints hamstringing many of its smaller peers. Case in point: Brookfield Asset Management, which hauled in $25 billion across its various strategies during the first quarter, bringing total inflows over the past 12 months to more than $140 billion.
The New York-based firm is touting its scale, diversification and long-term strategy to capitalize on broad-based trends such as decarbonization, deglobalization and digitalization, as well as the growing role of private credit in capital markets, to ride out global market volatility.
âAcross many markets today, the headlines do not reflect the underlying fundamentals, and that disconnect is creating compelling opportunities to deploy capital,â said Brookfieldâs Connor Teskey on the firmâs Q1 earnings call on Tuesday morning, echoing peers such as KKR and Apollo Global Management who have also been busy investing.
“We believe we are one of the largest active buyers of assets post-Liberation Day, with $25 billion in April alone,” Apollo’s Marc Rowan said on the firmâs earnings call last week.
Q1 fundraising
Brookfield raised $1.5 billion in the first quarter for its renewable power and transition business, of which $700 million went to its second global transition fund. The fund now stands at $14 billion in committed capital towards its $17 billion target final close, which Brookfield expects to hold in the coming months.
Brookfield did not disclose during the call how much it had raised thus far for its fourth infrastructure debt fund, a newly-launched $7 billion target fund thatâs also focused on renewable energy.
Energy transition
Brookfieldâs renewable transition business invested more than $3 billion last quarter to complete the privatization of French renewable energy developer Neoen, which it acquired last year. It also laid out $1.2 billion to acquire the renewables business of the UKâs National Grid, in a larger $1.7 billion deal that includes debt.
Late last month, the United Arab Emiratesâ $30 billion Alterra climate fund made a $100 million co-investment, alongside Brookfield, in Indian renewable energy company Evren to develop 11 gigawatts of solar, wind and battery storage (see, âAnchored by AltĂ©rra, TPG and Brookfield raise billions for climate opportunities in emerging marketsâ).
In March, the Brookfield issued C$450 million (US$315 million) in green bonds to invest in renewable and green projects in North America.
Strategic partners
Governments, corporates and institutions looking to the private sector for strategic partnerships are also creating opportunities, said Teskey. Brookfield, he said, âcan deliver not only capital at scale, but operating experience, speed, certainty and a proven ability to execute complex transactions.â
In February, Brookfield and French President Emmanual Macron announced a âŹ20 billion investment to support the deployment of AI infrastructure in the country (see, âWith markets down, up and sideways, investors look to ownership, AI and the rest of the worldâ).
Data4, a Brookfield portfolio company and data center developer, will receive âŹ15 billion to triple its data center capacity in France by 2030. The other âŹ5 billion will go towards data transfer, chip storage and energy generation. Teskey also shouted a strategic partnership with Barclays to help scale its payments platform.
