Brookfield trumps buyout titans with $50-billion deal spree

financialpost.com:

Canadian asset management giant Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has emerged as the world’s most acquisitive investment firm this year, as the titans of private equity increasingly stay on the sidelines.

Brookfield has announced more than US$50 billion of purchases since the beginning of January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s roughly triple the deal tallies of buyout firms like Apollo Global Management Inc., EQT AB and Silver Lake Management. KKR & Co. has unveiled just one major public-company takeover bid this year.

Toronto-based Brookfield offered US$4.3 billion this week for American Equity Investment Life Holding Co., one of the last remaining independent U.S. annuities providers. The deal, first reported by Bloomberg News, could boost its assets under management to US$900 billion.

It’s also responsible for two of the three biggest takeovers announced by investment firms globally this year. Brookfield’s infrastructure arm agreed in April to buy Triton International Ltd., the world’s largest owner of intermodal shipping containers, for US$13 billion including debt. Its energy transition fund was behind a US$12 billion March deal for Australian utility Origin Energy Ltd.

Brookfield’s ascendance comes as some private equity firms struggle to complete buyouts amid shaky financing markets and rich price demands from sellers. The same headwinds are leading many of the biggest alternative asset managers to spend more time raising new direct-lending funds as the world of private credit booms.

Gone are the days of an auction with 45 bids, two pre-empts and — I’d say — some aggressive dealmaking

Liquidity is scarce, and that’s creating a more disciplined environment, according to Anuj Ranjan, president of