Brookfield (NYSE:BN) reported second-quarter distributable earnings before realizations of $1.4 billion, or $0.61 per share, up 15% per share from a year earlier, as growth in asset management and wealth solutions supported results.
Total distributable earnings, including realizations, were $1.5 billion, or $0.66 per share, for the quarter. Over the past 12 months, distributable earnings before realizations totaled $5.7 billion, or $2.39 per share.
Flatt said the company sees a constructive environment despite geopolitical conflict, higher energy prices and uncertainty around interest rates. He pointed to rising demand for assets with low obsolescence risk and said digitalization, decarbonization and deglobalization are expanding investment opportunities in artificial intelligence infrastructure, energy, supply-chain reorganization and data sovereignty.
Asset Management fundraising reaches record
Brookfield’s Asset Management business generated distributable earnings of $740 million, or $0.31 per share, during the quarter. The segment raised a record $77 billion of capital, including $17 billion across flagship strategies.
The fundraising total included $7 billion for the seventh vintage of Brookfield’s private equity strategy and $9 billion for the sixth vintage of its infrastructure strategy. President Nick Goodman said both funds are on track to become the largest in their respective series.
Fee-bearing capital increased 19% year over year to $672 billion, while fee-related earnings rose 20%. Goodman said Brookfield expects another record fundraising year.
In July, Brookfield completed the acquisition of Oaktree, bringing the firms fully together and expanding its global credit platform. Flatt said the combined credit business is now among the most comprehensive globally.
The company said its capital base, which includes public-market, institutional, private-wealth, insurance and balance-sheet capital, gives it flexibility to match capital sources with investments across market cycles. Brookfield ended the quarter with $210 billion of deployable capital.
AI and nuclear investment opportunities
Management highlighted AI infrastructure as a major opportunity spanning Brookfield’s real estate, energy, infrastructure and credit operations. Flatt said the company is bringing together power generation, transmission, land entitlement, financing and customer relationships to support AI-related development.
Brookfield recently announced a planned $100 billion AI factory project in Kentucky with the U.S. government. Flatt said the U.S. Department of Energy selected Brookfield to repurpose a federally owned industrial site for an AI campus, with the site requiring relatively few additional approvals because of its existing Department of Energy uses.
Goodman said Brookfield expects much of its AI-related activity to be funded through its client funds, co-investments from large institutions and listed affiliates rather than relying primarily on corporate balance-sheet capital. He added that stabilized data-center assets could be recycled to long-duration institutional owners, helping fund further development.
Brookfield also cited Westinghouse as a beneficiary of demand for energy security and nuclear generation. Flatt said the U.S. Department of Energy made a further $17.5 billion financing commitment, alongside utility partners, to acquire long-lead items for reactor construction. Westinghouse has 14 reactors in various stages of construction, line of sight on another 40, and an additional 100 potential projects, according to Flatt.
Wealth Solutions expands with Just Group
Wealth Solutions generated distributable earnings of $480 million, or $0.20 per share, up 23% from the prior-year quarter. The business originated $5 billion of annuity sales, while insurance assets rose to more than $190 billion, aided by the acquisition of U.K.-based Just Group, which added $45 billion of insurance assets.
Chief Executive Officer of Wealth Solutions Sachin Shah said Just Group contributed approximately $29 million of earnings during Brookfield’s first full quarter of ownership, representing an initial return on equity of about 12%.
Shah said Brookfield has exited Just’s early-stage direct-to-consumer initiative and is simplifying the business around pension risk transfer and retail annuities. He said Just’s cost structure is two to three times that of some competitors and identified cost reductions and portfolio repositioning as key levers for improving returns.
Brookfield expects its investment origination capabilities in real estate, infrastructure and energy to support higher investment yields for Just’s long-duration pension liabilities. Shah said there is at least 50 basis points of potential spread improvement through cost reductions, with a longer-term path toward a spread closer to 200 basis points.
The company’s North American insurance operations deployed $5 billion into real-asset investments during the quarter, producing an average net investment income yield of 5.7%. Its property-and-casualty business recorded a 99% combined ratio, while the overall gross spread was 2.2%.
Shah said Brookfield sees a path to more than $300 billion of insurance assets by the end of the decade. He also said new bank distribution channels contributed about $200 million of annuity sales in the quarter, and that the company sees potential to add $10 billion to $12 billion of annual sales through bank channels over the next several years.
Operating businesses and capital returns
Brookfield’s operating businesses generated $361 million of distributable earnings, or $0.15 per share. Its super-core and core-plus real estate portfolios ended the quarter with occupancy above 95%.
In retail, nearly 1 million square feet of leases commenced at rents 12% above expiring levels. In office, Brookfield signed 4.5 million square feet of leases globally at average net rents 19% above expiring rents.
The company completed several asset sales during the first half, including the initial public offering of Csquare, its U.S. colocation data-center platform, generating about $1.2 billion of proceeds. Brookfield retained a 64% stake. It also sold One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf for £750 million and completed the $650 million sale of construction business Multiplex.
Brookfield realized $121 million of net carried interest during the quarter and ended the period with $12.5 billion of accumulated unrealized carried interest. Goodman said the company expects carry realization to build over time as earlier-vintage infrastructure and Oaktree funds return capital and clear preferred-return thresholds.
The company returned $270 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter. Year to date, it repurchased approximately $580 million of shares at an average price of $42 per share. The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per share, payable at the end of September to shareholders of record on Sept. 14, 2026.
About Brookfield (NYSE:BN)
Brookfield Corporation (NYSE:BN) is a global alternative asset manager that specializes in real assets. The company invests in and operates businesses across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power and energy, private equity and credit. Its activities span both ownership and active management of physical assets as well as the operation of investment funds and vehicles that provide institutional and retail investors access to long‑lived, cash‑generating assets.
Brookfield’s services include asset management, direct investing, property development and the operation of infrastructure and energy businesses.
