Brookfield (NYSE:BN) executives highlighted record 2025 results, continued fundraising momentum, and a planned move to simplify the company’s public structure during the firm’s fourth-quarter conference call. Management also pointed to improving capital markets conditions and outlined growth priorities across asset management, operating businesses, and its Wealth Solutions insurance platform.
Record 2025 results and an active year across the platform
Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt said 2025 was “a very active year,” underscoring Brookfield’s scale and activity across capital raising, financing, asset sales, and deployments. Flatt said the firm’s cash flows are supported by a $180 billion capital base and diversification across asset classes, geographies, and capital sources.
Flatt also cited Brookfield’s 21% shareholder return in 2025 and said the company’s 30-year annual compound return stands at 19%. On the market environment, he said fundamentals are strong, capital markets have improved, liquidity has returned, interest rates have started to come down globally, and transaction activity has increased.
Asset management growth and carry outlook
President Nick Goodman detailed the company’s financial results, reporting DE before realizations of $5.4 billion, or $2.27 per share, up 11% year over year. Total DE, including realizations, was $6.0 billion, or $2.54 per share, and total net income was $3.2 billion.
Goodman said the Asset Management business generated $2.8 billion of DE, or $1.17 per share, and raised $112 billion of capital during the year. Fee-bearing capital increased 12% to more than $600 billion, driving a 22% increase in fee-related earnings to $3.0 billion. Looking ahead, he cited fundraising visibility, including the launch of a flagship private equity fund and an inaugural AI infrastructure fund, as well as the announced acquisition of Oaktree, as supports for continued growth.
On monetizations and carried interest, Goodman said 2025 was a record year with $91 billion of asset sales across the business. The company realized $560 million of carried interest into income and ended the year with $11.6 billion of accumulated unrealized carried interest. In Q&A, management said it expects carried interest realizations to “start to step up in the second half” of 2026 and continue scaling into 2027 and 2028, while noting that timing is “slightly outside of our control.”
Real estate leasing strength and rate sensitivity
Goodman and management emphasized improving real estate fundamentals, pointing to limited new supply in major markets and continued tenant demand. During 2025, Brookfield signed nearly 17 million square feet of office leases globally, with net rents averaging 18% higher than expiring leases across its Super Core and Core Plus portfolios. The company ended the year with those portfolios more than 95% occupied.
- New York: 2.4 million square feet leased at rents 20% higher than expiring
- Canada: 2.4 million square feet leased at rents 10% higher than expiring
- London: nearly 800,000 square feet leased at rents close to 10% higher than expiring
In Q&A, management said office markets in global gateway cities are experiencing “very low to no new supply” and continued growth in tenant demand for high-quality space. The company also noted strong retail sales performance and leasing spreads across assets.
Addressing interest rate sensitivity, management said the real estate business is approximately 75% to 80% fixed rate, and estimated that a 25 basis point move in rates would impact funds from operations (FFO) by roughly $35 million on an annualized basis, while also pointing to tightening spreads and deleveraging benefits.
Wealth Solutions: expansion plans and Protection business scale
Brookfield Wealth Solutions CEO Sachin Shah said 2025 was a strong year, with over $140 billion of insurance assets and $1.7 billion of DE. He said the business delivered return on equity above its mid-teens target and expects continued growth across Retirement and Protection.
Shah outlined targets for 2026, including an expectation to end the year with around $200 billion of insurance assets, more than $2 billion of distributable earnings to Brookfield, and a capital base exceeding $20 billion.
Management described several 2026 priorities, including integrating and scaling its U.K. acquisition. Shah said Brookfield’s announced acquisition of Just Group is expected to close in the first half of 2026 and that Brookfield is advancing plans to pursue more than GBP 5 billion of pension opportunities annually. He also described expansion efforts in Asia, noting the company completed its first transaction in Japan at the end of 2025 and expects a pipeline that could translate into $3 billion to $5 billion of annual flows over time. In the U.S., Shah said Brookfield is expanding retirement distribution capabilities with an aim to drive more than $30 billion of inflows annually over time, and that near-term annualized organic inflows should “comfortably grow to over $25 billion.”
On the Protection (P&C) business, Shah said Brookfield focused on acquiring platforms at significant discounts to book and repositioning them for the next cycle as markets soften. He said the business is “break even on underwriting profit” and expects underwriting profits going forward. Shah said the Protection business is currently supported by about $3 billion of capital and has $8 billion of float, and he said Brookfield sees a path to $20 billion to $25 billion of float by the end of the decade.
Structure simplification, capital allocation, and dividend increase
Flatt said Brookfield is focused on streamlining and consolidating its market capitalizations, arguing that splitting market capitalization has become “suboptimal” as index investing has expanded. He pointed to the previously announced combination of Brookfield Business Partners and Brookfield Business Corporation as an initial step and said the firm intends to work on merging Brookfield Corporation with its paired sister insurance entity, BNT, to create a single listed entity.
In Q&A, Goodman said the firm is seeking to execute the BN/BNT combination within the next 12 months. He said the goal is to allow the insurance business to fully benefit from Brookfield’s capital base while maintaining low operating leverage, and he said governance, management, investment processes, and the risk framework would not change. He added that Brookfield is focused on preserving operational benefits as it works through the process.
On capital allocation, Goodman said Brookfield returned $1.6 billion to shareholders in 2025 through dividends and buybacks, including more than $1 billion of Class A share repurchases at an average price of $36. The company ended the year with record deployable capital of $188 billion, and Goodman described the balance sheet as conservatively capitalized with strong liquidity.
Goodman also announced a 17% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.07 per share, payable at the end of March to shareholders of record on March 17, 2026. In response to a question, he said the increase did not reflect a strategic shift, describing the payout ratio as still “very low” and reiterating that Brookfield remains focused on reinvesting capital and returning capital opportunistically through buybacks.
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.
