Brookfield has bought the last 26 percent of Oaktree for about $3.0bn, and says the United States is now its largest market
Howard Marks keeps a seat, and Oaktree keeps his name on it.
Brookfield said on Monday that it completed the acquisition of Oaktree on 31 July, buying the 26 percent interest it did not already own and taking the holding to 100 percent. Total consideration was approximately $3.0bn, in cash and in shares of both Brookfield Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management. The partnership between the two firms began in 2019.
Marks will be Co-Chair of Oaktree, a role he holds alongside a directorship at Brookfield Corporation and the chair of Brookfield's Investment Solutions Group. Bruce Karsh will also be Co-Chair, while remaining Oaktree's chief investment officer and the portfolio manager for its Global Opportunities and Global Credit strategies.
The credit platform
Brookfield describes the combined credit business as a $365bn platform, spanning opportunistic credit, real asset credit, asset-backed finance and corporate performing credit, sold to institutions, financial advisers and individuals. Bob O'Leary and Armen Panossian are named as co-chief executives of the credit group.
Connor Teskey, chief executive of Brookfield Asset Management, said the firm has spent the past twenty years building a credit business to sit alongside its real asset platforms, and that Oaktree strengthens its ability to invest across market cycles.
Where the firm now is
One consequence of the deal is geographic and Brookfield states it plainly. The United States becomes Brookfield Asset Management's largest market, home to more than 60 percent of its employee base and the source of nearly half of its revenue. Oaktree brings a presence in 18 countries.
Brookfield puts its total assets under management at more than $1 trillion, across more than 30 countries. Brookfield Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management are both listed in New York and Toronto.
The filing gives a total figure and no breakdown. How much of the roughly $3.0bn was cash and how much was BN and BAM stock is not stated in either document, so the share count issued is not derivable from what has been filed.
