BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD (BAM) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to Brookfield Asset Management's First Quarter 2024 Conference Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the conference call over to our first speaker, Mr. Jason Fooks, Managing Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

您好，歡迎參加布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司 2024 年第一季電話會議和網路廣播。 （操作員指示）我現在想將電話會議交給我們的第一位發言人，投資者關係董事總經理 Jason Fooks 先生。請繼續。

Thank you for joining us today for Brookfield Asset Management's Earnings Call. On the call today, we have Bruce Flatt, our Chief Executive Officer; Connor Teskey, our President; Bahir Manios, our Chief Financial Officer; and Hadley Peer Marshall, our incoming Chief Financial Officer.

感謝您今天參加布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司的收益電話會議。今天的電話會議有我們的執行長布魯斯弗拉特 (Bruce Flatt) 主持。康納‧特斯基，我們的總裁； Bahir Manios，我們的財務長；以及我們即將上任的財務長哈德利‧皮爾‧馬歇爾 (Hadley Peer Marshall)。

Bruce will start the call today with opening remarks followed by Connor, who will talk about some of the important drivers of our future growth. Bahir will discuss our financial results. And finally, Hadley will provide an update on our fundraising.

布魯斯將在今天的電話會議上致開幕詞，隨後康納將討論我們未來成長的一些重要驅動因素。巴希爾將討論我們的財務表現。最後，哈德利將提供我們籌款的最新資訊。

After our formal comments, we'll turn the call over to the operator and take analyst questions in order to accommodate all those who want to ask questions, we ask that you refrain from asking more than 2 questions at one time. If you should have additional questions, please rejoin the queue, and we'll be happy to take additional questions at the end if time permits.

在我們正式發表意見後，我們會將電話轉交給接線員並回答分析師問題，以便滿足所有想要提問的人的需求，我們要求您不要一次提出兩個以上的問題。如果您還有其他問題，請重新加入隊列，如果時間允許，我們很樂意在最後回答其他問題。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that in today's comments, including in responding to questions and in discussing new initiatives and our financial and operating performance, we may make forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities law. These statements reflect predictions of future events and trends and do not relate to historic events. They're subject to known and unknown risks, and future events and results may differ materially from such statements. For further information on these risks and their potential impacts on our company, please see our filings with the securities regulators in Canada and U.S. and the information available on our website.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，在今天的評論中，包括在回答問題和討論新舉措以及我們的財務和運營業績時，我們可能會做出前瞻性陳述，包括以下含義內的前瞻性陳述：適用的加拿大和美國證券法。這些陳述反映了對未來事件和趨勢的預測，與歷史事件無關。它們面臨已知和未知的風險，未來的事件和結果可能與此類陳述有重大差異。有關這些風險及其對我們公司的潛在影響的更多信息，請參閱我們向加拿大和美國證券監管機構提交的文件以及我們網站上提供的信息。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce.

這樣，我就把電話轉給布魯斯。

Thank you, Jason, and welcome, everyone, on the call. Our business is performing extremely well. and results were strong in the first quarter, driven by execution across all aspects of our business and highlighted by robust fundraising, successful capital markets execution and several strategic transactions. This should lead to excellent growth in overall results in 2024.

謝謝傑森，歡迎大家來電。我們的業務表現非常好。第一季的業績強勁，這得益於我們業務各個方面的執行力，並以強勁的融資、成功的資本市場執行和幾項策略交易為重點。這應該會帶來 2024 年整體業績的出色成長。

Improving market sentiment has been growing. Liquidity is returning to the capital markets, and most major economies are performing better than expected. This in turn has revived risk appetite among many investors and is fostering an increasingly stable and more constructive market.

市場情緒不斷好轉。資本市場流動性正在回歸，大多數主要經濟體的表現優於預期。這反過來又恢復了許多投資者的風險偏好，並正在培養一個日益穩定和更具建設性的市場。

We raised a total of $20 billion of capital during the first quarter, which included strong first closes for our 2 flagship -- 2 of our flagship funds. Our flagship funds, along with our private credit funds and insurance solutions channel have been among where our largest fund flows have come from over the past year. More broadly, we see continued client demand for more than 50 strategies that are in the market and expect our fundraising to continue to build throughout the year. This should lead to an excellent year for fundraising.

我們在第一季總共籌集了 200 億美元的資金，其中包括我們的 2 檔旗艦基金（我們的 2 檔旗艦基金）的首次收盤表現強勁。我們的旗艦基金以及我們的私人信貸基金和保險解決方案管道是過去一年中我們最大的資金流量來源之一。更廣泛地說，我們看到客戶對市場上 50 多種策略的持續需求，並預計我們的籌款活動將在全年繼續增加。這應該會成為籌款的絕佳一年。

Continued consolidation in the asset management sector is a tailwind with clients preferring to do more with fewer, larger and more diversified global managers. The market environment is also more conducive for transaction activity. We are seeing firsthand an improving market for sales of high-quality assets. This is particularly apparent in the private equity and real estate asset classes, where transaction volume has been lighter over the past few years, but is now picking up.

資產管理產業的持續整合是一種順風，客戶更願意透過更少、更大、更多元化的全球管理公司做更多事情。市場環境也更有利於交易活躍。我們親眼目睹了優質資產銷售市場的改善。這在私募股權和房地產資產類別中尤其明顯，這些資產類別的交易量在過去幾年中有所減少，但現在正在回升。

Most notably, we sold a 49% interest in ICD Brookfield Place, a premier property office property in Dubai for approximately $1.5 billion, marking one of the largest real estate transactions globally since the pandemic at the highest valuation for an office property ever in the region.

最值得注意的是，我們以約15 億美元的價格出售了杜拜頂級房地產辦公房地產ICD Brookfield Place 49% 的權益，這是自疫情大流行以來全球最大的房地產交易之一，也是該地區辦公地產有史以來的最高估值。

Over the past year, we also sold or under contract to sell approximately $35 billion of assets across all of our businesses, generating very good returns on capital. And as we look forward to the rest of '24, we see more monetizations to come.

去年，我們也出售或根據合約出售了我們所有業務的約 350 億美元資產，產生了非常好的資本回報。當我們期待 24 年剩下的時間時，我們看到更多的貨幣化即將到來。

We're also continuing to take advantage of currently strong debt markets to refinance debt at attractive rates. Thanks to the high-quality nature of our businesses and continued progress on operational improvement plans across many of our portfolio companies within our private equity business, we have been able to successfully refinance over $18 billion of borrowings, resulting in actually a decrease in the overall cost of debt compared to the debt that we replaced.

我們也將繼續利用當前強勁的債務市場，以有吸引力的利率為債務再融資。由於我們業務的高品質以及我們私募股權業務中許多投資組合公司的營運改善計劃的持續進展，我們已經能夠成功地為超過180 億美元的借款進行再融資，從而實際上導致了總體貸款額的下降。

At the same time, there are so many instances where the balance sheets of owners of high-quality businesses and assets cannot withstand the increase of the rates over the past 2 years or where business fundamentals have not lived up to the expectations of the capital structure that was put in place at the time when they financed the business. This should, therefore, also be an excellent period to invest for both our equity and credit strategies. To support this, we entered this period with over $100 billion of dry powder ready to invest and a strong balance sheet to support strategic initiatives.

同時，優質企業和資產所有者的資產負債表無法承受過去兩年利率上漲的情況或企業基本面未達到資本結構預期的情況也不少。因此，這也應該是投資我們的股票和信貸策略的絕佳時期。為了支持這一目標，我們進入這段時期時準備了超過 1000 億美元的乾粉進行投資，並擁有強大的資產負債表來支持戰略舉措。

To that end, we announced 3 strategic transactions so far this year. First, we recently added management responsibility for the $50 billion of AEL capital that came to our parent. Second, we agreed to acquire the majority stake in Castlelake, a best-in-class manager focused on aviation and specialty finance. Third, we expanded our partnership with Oaktree by acquiring an additional close to 5% interest in the company. Connor will speak to each of these with a little more depth, but we're excited about the opportunity to serve our clients in more ways, bolster the capabilities of our credit group and further drive fee-related earnings.

為此，我們今年迄今宣布了 3 項策略交易。首先，我們最近增加了對母公司 500 億美元 AEL 資本的管理責任。其次，我們同意收購 Castlelake 的多數股權，Castlelake 是一家專注於航空和專業金融的一流管理公司。第三，我們透過額外收購橡樹資本近 5% 的股權，擴大了與橡樹資本的合作關係。康納將對每個人進行更深入的討論，但我們很高興有機會以更多方式為客戶提供服務，增強我們信貸團隊的能力並進一步推動與費用相關的收入。

It's been a very active start to the year, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

今年是一個非常活躍的開始，我們期待向您通報我們的最新進展。

Before turning over the call, I wanted to note that Bahir who has been with Brookfield for 20 years, will be stepping away at the end of this month. Bahir has made a very significant contribution to many of our businesses over the years, helping drive our infrastructure business, insurance and most recently, assisted with the launch of our asset management business into the capital markets. Thank you, Bahir.

在轉交電話之前，我想指出，在布魯克菲爾德工作了 20 年的巴希爾將於本月底離職。多年來，巴希爾為我們的許多業務做出了非常重大的貢獻，幫助推動我們的基礎設施業務、保險業務，最近還協助我們將資產管理業務推向資本市場。謝謝你，巴希爾。

And as all of you know, the Board appointed Hadley Peer Marshall, a 10-year Brookfield veteran who has been driven significant success in our infrastructure group as our new Chief Financial Officer. We are all looking forward to introducing you to Hadley when we have the chance.

眾所周知，董事會任命哈德利·皮爾·馬歇爾 (Hadley Peer Marshall) 擔任我們的新任首席財務官，他是在布魯克菲爾德工作了 10 年的資深人士，在我們的基礎設施部門取得了巨大的成功。我們都期待著有機會時向您介紹哈德利。

With that, I will turn the call over to Connor. Thank you for being here.

這樣，我就把電話轉給康納。非常感謝您的到來。

Thank you, Bruce. As Bruce mentioned, we've had a very active start to the year, both in terms of fundraising and executing on several strategic transactions and we expect to build on this momentum as we progress through the year. However, my comments today will be focused on how we are positioning ourselves for long-term growth.

謝謝你，布魯斯。正如布魯斯所提到的，我們今年的開局非常活躍，無論是在籌款還是執行幾項戰略交易方面，我們希望在這一年的進展中繼續保持這一勢頭。然而，我今天的評論將集中於我們如何定位自己以實現長期成長。

With 3 flagships expecting final closes this year, a record number of complementary funds, more than 50 strategies, either in or just now coming to market and the additional asset origination capabilities of the Brookfield reinsurance platform from AEL, we expect fundraising will continue to scale throughout 2024. At the core of our fundraising success, is our long-standing track record of delivering attractive returns to our clients, reinforced by the deep relationship and partnership we have built over the last 2 decades. However, our ability to raise significant levels of capital consistently each year and across different economic environments is due to several important characteristics of our business that we would like to -- and we would like to highlight 4 of them with you here today.

預計今年將有 3 家旗艦產品最終交割，補充基金數量創紀錄，超過 50 種策略（已上市或剛剛上市）以及 AEL 的 Brookfield 再保險平台的額外資產發起能力，我們預計籌款規模將繼續擴大整個2024年。然而，我們每年能夠在不同的經濟環境中持續籌集大量資本，是由於我們希望我們業務具有幾個重要特徵——今天我們想與大家重點介紹其中的四個特徵。

The first is that we have a leadership position in infrastructure, renewable power, transition and credit. All of which are in high demand by institutional investors today. This demand is in large part because these asset classes sit at the center of 3 mega trends reshaping the global economy, decarbonization, deglobalization and digitalization. These sectors will require over $200 trillion of capital over the next 30 years, creating significant growth opportunities as we create products and solutions to address these market needs.

首先，我們在基礎設施、再生能源、轉型和信貸方面處於領先地位。如今，所有這些都受到機構投資者的強烈需求。這種需求在很大程度上是因為這些資產類別處於重塑全球經濟的三大趨勢的中心：脫碳、去全球化和數位化。這些產業在未來 30 年將需要超過 200 兆美元的資本，隨著我們創造產品和解決方案來滿足這些市場需求，這將創造巨大的成長機會。

Second, we have deliberately focused on expanding our ability to raise capital across multiple channels with every global investor base. While we continue to see ample opportunity to raise capital from institutional investors, we have expanded our capabilities with our private wealth platform and our wealth solutions business. While today, they represent a modest portion of our overall fee-bearing capital, we expect both to be new engines for this next phase of growth.

其次，我們刻意致力於擴大我們透過多種管道與全球投資者群體籌集資金的能力。雖然我們繼續看到充足的機會從機構投資者那裡籌集資金，但我們透過私人財富平台和財富解決方案業務擴展了我們的能力。雖然今天，它們只占我們整體收費資本的一小部分，但我們預計兩者都將成為下一階段成長的新引擎。

Starting with our wealth solutions, last week, Brookfield Reinsurance successfully closed its acquisition of AEL. This transaction significantly enhances its wealth platform and is expected to accelerate its future growth. We now manage nearly 900 -- sorry, we now manage nearly $90 billion of insurance fee-bearing capital on behalf of Brookfield Reinsurance, including approximately $50 billion of assets that came with the AEL acquisition. These new assets will be subject to an investment management agreement and will provide us with an incremental $125 million of fee revenues each year.

從我們的財富解決方案開始，布魯克菲爾德再保險公司上周成功完成了對 AEL 的收購。此次交易顯著增強了其財富平台，預計將加速其未來的成長。我們現在管理著近 900 家——抱歉，我們現在代表 Brookfield Reinsurance 管理近 900 億美元的保險收費資本，其中包括收購 AEL 帶來的約 500 億美元的資產。這些新資產將受到投資管理協議的約束，並將每年為我們帶來 1.25 億美元的增量費用收入。

As Brookfield Reinsurance continues to grow its assets, we expect our fees will grow as well. We also expect that Brookfield's wealth platform will soon write $15 billion to $20 billion of annuities annually making it one of the largest annuity platforms within the United States. And because in recent years, we have been investing in our insurance capabilities ahead of such growth, we are well prepared for this new $50 billion mandate of capital and we will be able to deploy it very efficiently.

隨著布魯克菲爾德再保險公司的資產不斷增長，我們預計我們的費用也會增加。我們也預計布魯克菲爾德的財富平台很快將每年提供 150 億至 200 億美元的年金，使其成為美國最大的年金平台之一。由於近年來，我們一直在這種增長之前投資於我們的保險能力，因此我們為新的 500 億美元資本授權做好了充分準備，並且我們將能夠非常有效地部署它。

Our wealth solutions strategy is focused on managing capital to meet the unique needs of insurance companies. We earn fee-related revenues for our services, but we do not take on any of the assets, liabilities or generate spread-related earnings from these investments. However, beyond the growing fee revenue stream, our wealth solutions business also gives us a pocket of capital that is seeking credit opportunities, including investment grade at scale, which will allow us to deploy capital in new and innovative ways.

我們的財富解決方案策略專注於管理資本，以滿足保險公司的獨特需求。我們透過服務賺取與費用相關的收入，但我們不會從這些投資中承擔任何資產、負債或產生與利差相關的收益。然而，除了不斷增長的費用收入流之外，我們的財富解決方案業務還為我們提供了一筆正在尋求信貸機會的資本，包括大規模的投資級別，這將使我們能夠以新的和創新的方式部署資本。

We will continue to expand and enhance our capabilities to serve our insurance clients and expect that this will attract additional third-party insurance capital to our business.

我們將繼續擴大和增強我們為保險客戶提供服務的能力，並期望這將為我們的業務吸引更多的第三方保險資本。

Now turning to Brookfield Oaktree wealth solutions. Three years ago, we combined our private wealth presence alongside Oaktree's team to create Brookfield Oaktree wealth solutions, a business dedicated to delivering our premier alternative investment products to wealth managers worldwide. Since then, we have methodically scaled the business. Today, the team includes 150 professionals in 10 countries, spanning critical functions vital to fundraising, including supporting intermediaries and advisers.

現在轉向布魯克菲爾德橡樹財富解決方案。三年前，我們將我們的私人財富業務與橡樹資本團隊結合起來，創建了布魯克菲爾德橡樹財富解決方案，該公司致力於為全球財富管理機構提供我們優質的另類投資產品。從那時起，我們有條不紊地擴大業務規模。如今，該團隊由來自 10 個國家的 150 名專業人士組成，涵蓋對籌款至關重要的關鍵職能，包括支持中介機構和顧問。

Our global efforts have resulted in relationships with nearly 50 wealth managers, where we have placed over 100 private and public market solutions, including rapidly growing strategies, like our private wealth focused Brookfield Infrastructure Income strategy and Oaktree's strategic credit fund. This success capitalizes on our long-term proven track record as a best-in-class alternative asset manager.

我們在全球範圍內的努力已與近50 家財富管理機構建立了合作關係，並提供了100 多個私人和公開市場解決方案，其中包括快速增長的戰略，例如我們專注於私人財富的布魯克菲爾德基礎設施收入策略和橡樹資本策略信貸基金。這一成功得益於我們作為一流另類資產管理公司的長期良好業績記錄。

As we embark on our next stage of growth, we are building from a position of strength as we now offer individual investors a full suite of alternative investments across each of our strategies.

當我們進入下一階段的成長時，我們正在建立優勢地位，因為我們現在為個人投資者提供涵蓋我們每個策略的全套另類投資。

As the desire to increase allocation to alternatives for individual investors grows and should follow a similar course that alternatives have had for institutional investors over the last 20 years, we will continue to scale this business. Last year alone, the business raised $7 billion in capital, and we're just getting started. With many tailwinds at our back, we are on pace to raise $12 billion to $15 billion annually through this channel over the medium term.

隨著個人投資者增加另類投資配置的願望不斷增強，並且應該遵循過去 20 年來機構投資者另類投資的類似過程，我們將繼續擴大這項業務。光是去年，該公司就籌集了 70 億美元的資金，而我們才剛開始。在許多有利因素的支持下，我們預計在中期內透過這項管道每年籌集 120 億至 150 億美元的資金。

Thirdly, our organization is centered around building and operating businesses and assets that form the backbone of the global economy. However, the global economy is always evolving. Of the more than $925 billion of assets that we manage, nearly half are in sectors that didn't exist in scale 20 years ago, from fiber, telecom towers and data centers to wind, solar and digital payments.

第三，我們的組織以建立和營運構成全球經濟支柱的業務和資產為中心。然而，全球經濟總是在不斷發展。在我們管理的超過 9,250 億美元資產中，近一半屬於 20 年前不存在的產業，從光纖、電信塔和資料中心到風能、太陽能和數位支付。

Last quarter, we spoke about the importance of our focus on product innovation and development to meet the needs of our clients. We are seeing the benefits of that at work as we expect to be raising capital for a record number of complementary strategies this year with funds launching across all of our verticals.

上季度，我們談到了專注於產品創新和開發以滿足客戶需求的重要性。我們看到了這樣做的好處，因為我們預計今年將在我們所有垂直領域推出基金，為創紀錄數量的補充策略籌集資金。

And fourth and lastly, we have made investments in and built partnerships with best-in-class managers that has enabled us to expand our capabilities and serve our clients in more ways. We acquired an additional 5% interest in Oaktree in April, bringing our ownership stake to 73% today. We also announced an agreement to acquire a 51% interest in Castlelake, a leading asset-based private credit manager focused on aviation and other forms of specialty finance with $22 billion of assets under management.

第四，也是最後一點，我們對一流的管理人員進行了投資並與其建立了合作夥伴關係，這使我們能夠擴展我們的能力並以更多方式為我們的客戶提供服務。 4 月份，我們又收購了橡樹資本 5% 的股權，目前我們的持股比例達到 73%。我們也宣布達成協議，收購 Castlelake 51% 的股權，Castlelake 是一家領先的資產型私人信貸管理公司，專注於航空和其他形式的專業金融，管理 220 億美元的資產。

Our investment is projected to generate an additional $40 million of FRE within the next year with the option for us to increase our ownership over time. As we have done with other similar transactions, we plan to work in partnership with the Castlelake team to support the growth of their franchise while looking for opportunities for where our broader franchise can add value for our clients for years to come.

我們的投資預計將在明年額外產生 4000 萬美元的 FRE，我們可以選擇隨著時間的推移增加我們的所有權。正如我們在其他類似交易中所做的那樣，我們計劃與Castlelake 團隊合作，支持他們的特許經營權的發展，同時尋找機會，讓我們更廣泛的特許經營權可以在未來幾年為我們的客戶增加價值。

Before I turn it over to Bahir to go through our financial and operating results for the quarter, we'll wrap up by saying we have a number of tailwinds behind our business that continue to give us confidence to reach our targets of doubling distributable earnings and reaching over $1 trillion of fee-bearing capital over the next 4 years. Bahir?

在我將其交給巴希爾查看本季度的財務和營運業績之前，我們最後要說的是，我們的業務背後有許多有利因素，這些因素繼續讓我們有信心實現可分配收益翻倍的目標，未來 4 年內收費資本將達到 1 兆美元以上。巴哈?

Great. Thank you, Connor, and good morning, everybody. As Connor mentioned, I'll focus my remarks on our financial performance over the quarter and hand it off to Hadley who'll take you through the update on fundraising activities. So first on results. fee-related earnings, or FRE in the first quarter were $552 million and $2.2 billion over the last 12 months.

偉大的。謝謝你，康納，大家早安。正如康納所提到的，我將重點討論我們本季的財務業績，並將其交給哈德利，他將向您介紹籌款活動的最新情況。首先是結果。第一季的費用相關收益（FRE）為 5.52 億美元，過去 12 個月為 22 億美元。

Distributable earnings, or DE for the quarter were $547 million and $2.2 billion for the last 12 months. Our results for the period reflected the strong fundraising that both Bruce and Connor touched on earlier in their remarks.

本季可分配收益 (DE) 為 5.47 億美元，過去 12 個月為 22 億美元。我們這段時期的業績反映了布魯斯和康納早些時候在演講中提到的強勁籌款活動。

We generated over 15% growth in our fee-bearing capital within our flagship vehicles, private credit and insurance strategies over the last 12 months. And that drove a 15% growth in our fee revenues from these areas in the LTM or last 12 months' period.

過去 12 個月，我們的旗艦工具、私人信貸和保險策略的收費資本增加了 15% 以上。這使得我們在 LTM 或過去 12 個月期間來自這些領域的費用收入增加了 15%。

These very positive results were, however, offset by lower fees associated with our permanent capital vehicles and transaction fees that were also lower compared to the prior year.

然而，這些非常積極的業績被我們的永久資本工具相關費用的降低和交易費用的降低所抵消，這些費用也低於前一年。

Our permanent capital vehicle stock prices were lower as that period end compared to the prior periods. Despite releasing very strong earnings results, and recent increases in the dividends paid by both our infrastructure and renewable companies, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield Renewable Partners.

與先前期間相比，我們的永久資本工具股票價格在該期間結束時較低。儘管發布了非常強勁的獲利業績，並且我們的基礎設施和再生能源公司、布魯克菲爾德基礎設施合作夥伴和布魯克菲爾德再生能源合作夥伴最近支付的股息有所增加。

We believe each one of our companies are well positioned in any environment. and their trading prices will eventually rebound and be more reflective of the very strong underlying fundamentals and performance for those companies.

我們相信我們的每一家公司在任何環境中都處於有利地位。他們的交易價格最終將反彈，並更能反映這些公司非常強勁的基本面和業績。

During the quarter, we raised $20 billion of capital, $10 billion of which we had previously announced on our February earnings call. With that, our fee-bearing capital grew at period end to almost $460 billion, which is up $27 billion or 6% compared to the prior year.

在本季度，我們籌集了 200 億美元的資金，其中 100 億美元是我們先前在 2 月的財報電話會議上宣布的。至此，我們的收費資本在期末成長至近 4,600 億美元，比前一年增加了 270 億美元，即 6%。

Our fee-bearing capital benefited from very strong inflows and capital deployed during the year. This was somewhat offset by capital we returned to clients and market valuations of our permanent capital vehicles. Our fee-bearing capital will increase by $50 billion with the recently closed asset management mandate from American Equity Life.

我們的收費資本受惠於年內強勁的流入和資本配置。這在一定程度上被我們返還給客戶的資本和我們永久資本工具的市場估值所抵消。隨著 American Equity Life 最近完成的資產管理授權，我們的收費資本將增加 500 億美元。

Next on margins. For the last 12 months, they've remained stable and between 56% to 57%, but are poised to improve across each of our businesses as revenue growth should outpace costs. As we've previously discussed, expense growth in our businesses is expected to slow as much of the investment in expanding capabilities across our platform has been made over the past year or 2.

接下來是邊緣。在過去 12 個月中，它們一直保持穩定，在 56% 至 57% 之間，但由於收入成長應超過成本，我們的每項業務都將有所改善。正如我們之前討論的，我們業務的費用成長預計將放緩，因為過去一兩年我們在平台能力擴展方面進行了大量投資。

To that end, direct cost growth moderated quite significantly this quarter compared to the prior year comparables. At the same time, revenues will benefit from our significant capital raising initiatives over the past year, the additional $50 billion of AEL capital, which will contribute at least $125 million of annualized base fee revenues and potentially a rebound in the prices of our publicly listed affiliates.

為此，與去年同期相比，本季直接成本成長顯著放緩。同時，收入將受益於我們過去一年的重大融資舉措，額外的500 億美元AEL 資本，將貢獻至少1.25 億美元的年化基本費用收入，並有可能使我們的公開上市公司的價格反彈。

I'll now briefly touch on our dry powder. Today, we sit on over $100 billion of dry powder available for deployment and have been actively putting this capital to work. We deployed an additional $11 billion in the first quarter, with over half of that going into credit products as we continue to see the current environment being very favorable for credit investing.

現在我將簡要介紹一下我們的乾粉。如今，我們擁有超過 1000 億美元的可用於部署的乾粉，並且一直在積極運用這筆資金。我們在第一季額外部署了 110 億美元，其中一半以上投入了信貸產品，因為我們仍然認為當前的環境非常有利於信貸投資。

Our liquidity continues to be very strong with $2.6 billion of cash and equivalents on our balance sheet as at period end. And as a reminder, we operate with 0 debt at the corporate level.

我們的流動性仍然非常強勁，截至期末，我們的資產負債表上有 26 億美元的現金和等價物。提醒一下，我們在公司層級的債務為零。

And lastly, before turning the call over to Hadley, I'm pleased to confirm that the Board of Directors has declared a dividend of $0.38 per share for the first quarter of 2024. Payable on June 28 to the shareholders of record as at the close of business on May 31.

最後，在將電話轉給 Hadley 之前，我很高興地確認董事會已宣布 2024 年第一季派發每股 0.38 美元的股息。營業。

And so with that, I'll turn it over to Hadley. I've had the pleasure of working with Hadley since she joined our infrastructure group in 2015, and it's a great honor for me to introduce her as my successor in this role. Hadley is extremely well known in the financial community and brings tremendous experience and financial expertise to the role. As for me, it's been an incredible 20-year career at Brookfield. I've really enjoyed my time as CFO of the company. and prior to that, the CFO of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.

就這樣，我將把它交給哈德利。自從 Hadley 於 2015 年加入我們的基礎設施團隊以來，我很高興與她一起工作，我非常榮幸地介紹她作為我的繼任者。哈德利在金融界非常知名，為此職位帶來了豐富的經驗和金融專業知識。對我來說，在布魯克菲爾德度過了令人難以置信的 20 年職業生涯。我非常享受擔任公司財務長的時光。在此之前，擔任布魯克菲爾德基礎設施合作夥伴公司的財務長。

It's been a great experience, and I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work and interact with many of you on the line. And I sincerely thank you for all your support along the way. I look forward to seeing many of you in the coming months as I continue to transition Hadley into the CFO seat.

這是一次很棒的經歷，我感到非常幸運有機會與你們中的許多人一起工作和互動。我衷心感謝大家一路以來的支持。我期待在接下來的幾個月裡見到你們中的許多人，因為我將繼續將哈德利調任財務長。

And so with that, I'll hand it over to Hadley.

就這樣，我將把它交給哈德利。

Thank you, Bahir. I, too, would like to thank you for your service and support, and I'm thrilled to be taking on this role at such an exciting time of growth for our business. Let me start things off by providing some more details on the capital we raised in the first quarter.

謝謝你，巴希爾。我也想感謝您的服務和支持，我很高興能夠在我們業務發展如此令人興奮的時刻擔任這一職務。讓我先提供有關我們第一季籌集的資金的更多詳細資訊。

In summary, it was a strong first quarter for capital raising, and we're optimistic about the year ahead since we have 4 flagships in the market. We have the largest number of complementary funds we've ever had in or coming to market, and a rapid scaling insurance solutions business.

總而言之，第一季的融資表現強勁，我們對未來一年持樂觀態度，因為我們在市場上有 4 款旗艦產品。我們擁有有史以來數量最多或即將上市的補充基金，以及快速擴展的保險解決方案業務。

Within our infrastructure business, we raised a little over $3 billion, including around $2 billion of capital for our super core infrastructure strategy as part of a follow-on acquisition of FirstEnergy. Our infrastructure wealth solutions product, Brookfield Infrastructure Income continues to see robust demand, raising an additional $600 million in the first quarter and bringing assets under management to over $2 billion. For our renewable power and transition business, we held a first close for the second vintage of our flagship global transition fund at $10 billion, including $1.2 billion of capital raised in the first quarter.

在我們的基礎設施業務中，我們籌集了略高於 30 億美元的資金，其中包括為我們的超級核心基礎設施策略籌集的約 20 億美元資金，作為後續收購 FirstEnergy 的一部分。我們的基礎設施財富解決方案產品 Brookfield Infrastructure Income 持續滿足強勁需求，第一季額外籌集了 6 億美元，使管理資產超過 20 億美元。對於我們的再生能源和轉型業務，我們為我們的旗艦全球轉型基金第二期進行了首次募集，規模為 100 億美元，其中包括第一季籌集的 12 億美元資金。

On the back of good momentum, we expect to hold a final close later this year. In addition, we launched our catalytic transition fund. This fund was previously announced at COP28 with a $1 billion anchor commitment from our long-term partner, ALTÉRRA. And we anticipate first close to this fund later this year.

在良好勢頭的支持下，我們預計將在今年稍後完成最終交割。此外，我們也推出了催化轉型基金。該基金先前已在 COP28 上宣布，我們的長期合作夥伴 ALTäRRA 承諾提供 10 億美元的錨定承諾。我們預計今年稍後將首次關閉該基金。

Within private equity, we raised $1.5 billion in the quarter and also recently launched several complementary strategies, including a Middle East fund and a strategy for financial infrastructure investing.

在私募股權領域，我們本季籌集了 15 億美元，最近也推出了多項補充策略，包括中東基金和金融基礎設施投資策略。

In real estate, we held a first close for the fifth vintage of our flagship opportunistic real estate fund at over $8 billion, and we also anticipate holding a final close later in 2024.

在房地產領域，我們為旗艦機會主義房地產基金的第五個年份進行了首次收盤，規模超過 80 億美元，我們也預計在 2024 年稍後進行最終收盤。

Finally, in credit, we continue to see strong fundraising momentum, raising nearly $6 billion within Oaktree funds in the quarter, including $1 billion within our sponsor credit business and nearly $1 billion within the 12th vintage of our opportunistic credit fund. Overall, capital was raised across more than a dozen credit strategies this quarter, and we anticipate launching our seventh real estate debt fund and our fourth infrastructure debt fund later in the year.

最後，在信貸方面，我們繼續看到強勁的籌款勢頭，本季在橡樹基金內部籌集了近60 億美元，其中包括我們贊助商信貸業務中的10 億美元和我們機會主義信貸基金第12 期中的近10 億美元。總體而言，本季透過十多項信貸策略籌集了資金，我們預計將在今年稍後推出第七個房地產債務基金和第四個基礎設施債務基金。

Within our insurance solutions business, we also raised $2 billion and are expecting this scaling further throughout the year.

在我們的保險解決方案業務中，我們還籌集了 20 億美元，並預計這一規模將在今年進一步擴大。

I want to spend some time covering our credit group, in particular, as this is an area I've focused on personally for many years and more importantly, is one of the parts of our franchise where we see significant growth ahead. One of the benefits of being large, global and diversified is that we are in constant communication with and serve a wide array of clients, including the largest and most sophisticated institutional investors in the world. Some of the biggest insurance companies globally as well as individual and high net worth investors.

我想花一些時間來介紹我們的信貸集團，特別是，因為這是我個人多年來一直關注的領域，更重要的是，這是我們的特許經營權的一部分，我們預計未來將出現顯著增長。規模化、全球化和多元化的好處之一是，我們能夠與廣泛的客戶保持持續溝通並為他們提供服務，其中包括世界上最大和最成熟的機構投資者。全球一些最大的保險公司以及個人和高淨值投資者。

Over the past year or so, what our clients have been telling us has been resoundingly clear. They want to meaningfully increase their allocations to credit, specifically private credit. Fortunately, for us, our credit business can serve those clients' needs given its breadth of product offerings and brand as a market leader. To that end, we recently announced the consolidation of all of our credit businesses and strategies under a newly formed credit group, which today totals nearly $300 billion of assets under management, inclusive of the $50 billion AEL mandate.

在過去一年左右的時間裡，我們的客戶告訴我們的事情非常清楚。他們希望大幅增加信貸配置，特別是私人信貸。幸運的是，對我們來說，鑑於其產品供應的廣泛性和作為市場領導者的品牌，我們的信貸業務可以滿足這些客戶的需求。為此，我們最近宣布將所有信貸業務和策略整合到一個新成立的信貸集團之下，該集團目前管理的資產總額接近 3,000 億美元，其中包括 500 億美元的 AEL 授權。

As of March 31, we've managed $180 billion of fee-bearing capital, which generates annualized fee revenues of $1.2 billion and growing. 45% of this capital is raised to private and opportunistic credit strategies, which account for over 70% of our fee revenues.

截至 3 月 31 日，我們管理著 1,800 億美元的收費資本，產生的年化收費收入為 12 億美元，而且還在持續成長中。其中 45% 的資本用於私人和機會主義信貸策略，占我們費用收入的 70% 以上。

We have a broad and growing product offering from various private, opportunistic, structured and liquid credit strategies for initial insurance and individual clients to choose from based on their financial goals. And we believe that the best is yet to come. We continue to broaden our product offerings and enhance our deployment capabilities for our clients. In fact, the 3 strategic transactions we discussed, AEL, Oaktree and Castlelake, each marked an exciting next step in significantly scaling our global credit franchise.

我們提供廣泛且不斷成長的產品，包括各種私人、機會主義、結構性和流動性信貸策略，供初始保險和個人客戶根據其財務目標進行選擇。我們相信最好的尚未到來。我們繼續擴大我們的產品範圍並增強我們為客戶提供的部署能力。事實上，我們討論的 3 項策略交易（AEL、Oaktree 和 Castlelake）每一項都標誌著我們在大幅擴大全球信貸業務方面邁出了令人興奮的下一步。

We also enhanced our insurance solution disclosure given the growth of the fundraising channel. As a reminder, our insurance solutions channel is focused on large mandates that can deliver to insurance companies their financial objectives. The capital we raised so far has been predominantly from Brookfield Reinsurance, however, we expect to bring in additional third-party insurance companies as well. Our relationship with these clients is strong, and in turn, they are attracted to Brookfield's product offerings and partnership capabilities.

鑑於籌款管道的成長，我們也加強了保險解決方案的揭露。提醒一下，我們的保險解決方案管道專注於可以為保險公司實現財務目標的大型任務。到目前為止，我們籌集的資金主要來自布魯克菲爾德再保險公司，但是，我們預計也會引入更多的第三方保險公司。我們與這些客戶的關係非常牢固，反過來，他們也被布魯克菲爾德的產品和合作能力所吸引。

With the $50 billion of additional capital we are now managing from the AEL mandate, our total assets managed through our insurance solutions channel is $86 billion. And our expectation is this will grow by $15 billion to $20 billion per year. As of March 31, 51% of capital was invested in high-grade liquid credit strategies, 41% in investment-grade credit and 8% in private funds.

憑藉我們目前根據 AEL 授權管理的 500 億美元額外資本，我們透過保險解決方案管道管理的總資產達到 860 億美元。我們預計這一數字每年將成長 150 億至 200 億美元。截至3月31日，51%的資本投資於高階流動信貸策略，41%投資於投資等級信貸，8%投資於私募基金。

As a reminder, we earn a 25 basis point fee for the total amount of capital we manage under our long-term investment management agreement and then standard -- additional standard fees for any capital allocated to our private funds.

提醒一下，我們根據長期投資管理協議管理的資本總額收取 25 個基點的費用，然後對分配給我們私募基金的任何資本收取標準費用。

I'll just wrap up by saying, as you've heard from the team today, we are embarking on a year filled with significant initiatives and opportunities. I'm eager to contribute to our continued success and look forward to meeting many of you in the quarters to come.

最後我要說的是，正如您今天從團隊中聽到的那樣，我們即將迎來充滿重大舉措和機會的一年。我渴望為我們的持續成功做出貢獻，並期待在未來幾個季度見到你們中的許多人。

With that, operator, we can open it up to questions.

有了這個，操作員，我們就可以提出問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Cherilyn Radbourne with TD Cowen.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Cherilyn Radbourne 和 TD Cowen 的線路。

Firstly, we've been getting some questions from clients on the fund performance track records this morning. And those seem to be flat to down slightly quarter-over-quarter. So I was hoping you could give us some color on your marks and whether you see that as a transitory issue with the market backdrop improving?

首先，今天早上我們收到了客戶關於基金業績記錄的一些問題。這些數字似乎與上一季持平甚至略有下降。因此，我希望您能給我們一些關於您的觀點的信息，您是否認為隨著市場背景的改善，這是一個暫時的問題？

Good morning, Cherilyn, thanks for the question. This is, in our minds, absolutely, as you say, temporary in nature. We are always very conservative with our marks. And with some of the market volatility in Q1, we obviously reflect that in our financial position. But it will come as a surprise to no one just the increasing strength and momentum in the financial markets. We're seeing the strategic bid come back from corporate. We're seeing banks lending an increasing amount, we're seeing incredible liquidity in the system, and we're seeing the bid-ask between buyers and sellers increasingly shrink.

早安，Cherilyn，謝謝你的提問。正如你所說，在我們看來，這絕對是暫時的。我們對自己的分數總是非常保守。由於第一季市場出現一些波動，我們的財務狀況顯然反映了這一點。但金融市場不斷增強的實力和勢頭不會讓任何人感到驚訝。我們看到公司的策略出價回來了。我們看到銀行的貸款數量不斷增加，我們看到系統中令人難以置信的流動性，我們看到買家和賣家之間的買賣日益縮小。

So we always position ourselves in a strong liquidity position. So we are never a forced seller during those temporary moments of volatility, but we would expect those marks to very quickly revert to in line or above our targets and similar with our long-term track record.

因此，我們始終將自己置於強大的流動性地位。因此，在暫時的波動期間，我們永遠不會被迫賣出，但我們預計這些標記將很快恢復到我們的目標線或高於我們的目標，並與我們的長期記錄類似。

Great. And then shifting gears, could you give us some background on how the recent Castlelake deal came together and particularly how that deal is structured between BAM and Brookfield Reinsurance?

偉大的。然後換個話題，您能否為我們介紹一下最近 Castlelake 交易是如何達成的背景，特別是 BAM 和 Brookfield Reinsurance 之間的交易是如何構建的？

Absolutely. We are thrilled with the announcement to being partnered with Castle Lake going forward. We've spent a great deal of time getting to know the company and the management team. We think they will be very complementary to broader Brookfield and our existing credit franchise. And similar to how we have partnered with other affiliate managers in the past, we believe that within the Brookfield ecosystem, we can support and accelerate the growth of that franchise while at the same time, expanding the product offering we can provide to our clients and LP partners.

絕對地。我們很高興宣布與 Castle Lake 繼續合作。我們花了很多時間來了解公司和管理團隊。我們認為它們將是對更廣泛的布魯克菲爾德和我們現有的信貸特許經營的補充。與我們過去與其他聯盟經理合作的方式類似，我們相信在布魯克菲爾德生態系統​​內，我們可以支持並加速該特許經營權的增長，同時擴大我們可以為客戶提供的產品範圍，有限合夥人合夥人。

To answer your specific question around the breakdown between Brookfield Asset Management, and Brookfield Reinsurance. Brookfield Asset Management will spend about $500 million upon closing of that transaction. That $500 million is broken down into about $350 million to acquire 51% of the FRE and the remaining $150 million will be to support the business in acquiring a small portion of the businesses carry and funding our proportionate share of the manager's GP stakes going forward.

回答您有關布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司和布魯克菲爾德再保險公司之間的細分的具體問題。交易完成後，布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司將花費約 5 億美元。這5 億美元分為約3.5 億美元，用於收購FRE 51% 的股份，其餘1.5 億美元將用於支持該業務收購一小部分業務，並為我們未來按比例分配的管理人GP 股份提供資金。

It's important to recognize that the bulk of the $1.5 billion that was announced will come as an investment from Brookfield Reinsurance to support the growth of Castlelake going forward, but the investment from Brookfield Asset Management is about $500 million upfront.

重要的是要認識到，所宣布的 15 億美元中的大部分將來自 Brookfield Reinsurance 的投資，以支持 Castlelake 的未來發展，但 Brookfield Asset Management 的投資額約為 5 億美元。

Our next question comes from the line of Alexander Blostein with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的亞歷山大‧布洛斯坦 (Alexander Blostein)。

Congrats, Bahir, to your next endeavor, and welcome Hadley to the call. My question is around fundraising. So you guys raised $20 billion in the quarter, and you suggested a number of times over the course of the call that, that's likely to build as you progress. I know you sort of backed away from being too specific with respect to, I guess, $100 billion you talked in the past and as things could slip, et cetera. But can you just help us frame, I guess, one, what is the kind of quarterly pace you expect to be at? Are your comments implying you expect to be north of 20% kind of on a quarterly run rate basis from here?

恭喜巴希爾，你的下一次努力，並歡迎哈德利參加電話會議。我的問題是關於籌款的。你們在本季籌集了 200 億美元，並且在電話會議過程中多次建議，隨著你們的進展，這可能會增加。我知道你有點迴避對你過去談到的 1000 億美元問題過於具體，因為事情可能會下滑，等等。但我想，您能否幫助我們確定您期望的季度進度是多少？您的評論是否暗示您預計季度運行率將超過 20%？

And number 2, with respect to the 4 flagships that are currently in the market, can you just give us the mark-to-market on kind of the expected sizing for these flagships and the client reception you're having on the demand side of things?

第二，關於目前市場上的 4 款旗艦產品，您能否向我們提供按市場計價的這些旗艦產品的預期尺寸以及您在需求方面的客戶接待情況？

Great. Thanks, Alex. I appreciate the question. The overarching comment we would make on fundraising is our sentiment around confidence in terms of fundraising hasn't changed at all. Obviously, it was a tremendous quarter. In fact, this was the best Q1 fundraising quarter we've ever had. And in terms of the dynamics that we see driving our fundraising activity for the remainder of the year, they all stay very much intact. Three flagships that we expect to close a record number of complementary funds and significantly larger ability to generate inflows from our insurance platform going forward.

偉大的。謝謝，亞歷克斯。我很欣賞這個問題。我們對籌款的整體評論是我們對籌款信心的看法根本沒有改變。顯然，這是一個偉大的季度。事實上，這是我們有史以來最好的第一季籌款季度。就我們看到的推動今年剩餘時間籌款活動的動態而言，它們都保持完好無損。我們預計這三個旗艦將關閉創紀錄數量的補充基金，並且未來從我們的保險平台產生資金流入的能力將顯著增強。

The one point I would just make on specific figures and timing is given what we've seen to date, yes, things could change, but they could equally change to the upside in terms of them slipping. The momentum is very, very strong.

我要就具體數字和時間安排提出的一點是，考慮到我們迄今為止所看到的情況，是的，情況可能會發生變化，但它們同樣可能會因下滑而變得有利。勢頭非常非常強勁。

To answer your 2 specific questions, maybe the one piece of guidance we would give on quarterly pace is we do recognize that 2023 in terms of fundraising was quite back-end loaded. We don't see as much of that dynamic this year. We do expect fundraising to be more balanced across the 4 quarters.

為了回答您的 2 個具體問題，也許我們對季度進度給出的一項指導是，我們確實認識到 2023 年的籌款情況相當嚴重。今年我們沒有看到那麼多的動態。我們確實預計四個季度的籌款將更加平衡。

Obviously, it will accelerate a little bit towards the back end of the year. But we don't expect such a concentration in Q4 as we saw in 2023. And then just in terms of the flagship within our business, this is where we're seeing incredible momentum. Our confidence in the reception of our transition strategy continues to be immense -- best-in-class. We feel very confident in terms of closing up that fund at or above our targets this year. And particularly in our real estate flagship, this is where we're really seeing the market opening up. And investors are seeing the upside and the rebound in that asset class and looking to get an increasing amount of exposure.

顯然，到今年年底，它會稍微加速。但我們預計第四季度不會像 2023 年那樣集中。我們對過渡策略的接受仍然充滿信心——一流的。我們對於今年將該基金的收盤價達到或高於我們的目標非常有信心。尤其是在我們的房地產旗艦店，這是我們真正看到市場開放的地方。投資者正在看到該資產類別的上漲和反彈，並希望獲得越來越多的投資。

And then maybe just to finish on credit. It was very well highlighted in our quarterly results that credit is the biggest driver of our fundraising in Q1, and that is indicative of the support we are seeing across our credit franchise, including the flagships, and that's something we expect to see in the coming quarters as well.

然後也許只是為了賒帳。我們的季度業績很好地強調了信貸是我們第一季融資的最大推動力，這表明我們在包括旗艦在內的信貸特許經營中看到了支持，這也是我們預計在未來看到的宿舍也是如此。

Great. That's perfect. And then my second question is around the insurance business and appreciate the extra disclosure in the slide deck. But I guess if you look at AEL now that it's closed, how are you thinking about both the magnitude and timing of rotating some of AEL assets to BAM and Oaktree kind of credit strategies that will enable you to earn a higher fee on top of the IMA? And I guess when you kind of think about the platform broadly, now you mentioned $90 billion as a whole. Kind of what is the ultimate sub-advisory capacity do you see for the firm, again, in addition to IMA when it comes to that $90 billion?

偉大的。那很完美。我的第二個問題是關於保險業務的，感謝幻燈片中的額外披露。但我想如果你現在看看 AEL 已經關閉，你會如何考慮將一些 AEL 資產輪換到 BAM 和橡樹資本類型的信貸策略的規模和時機，這些策略將使你能夠在我是一個？我想當你從廣義上考慮這個平台時，你現在提到了 900 億美元的總價值。就這 900 億美元而言，除了 IMA 之外，您認為該公司最終的次級諮詢能力是什麼？

Sure. And well, obviously, this will evolve over time. We want to be helpful and constructive here. I would say, over the long term, we expect to deploy about 1/3 of that capital into long-term private funds, maybe about another 1/3 into investment-grade credit and maybe about another 1/3 into liquid credit. That's probably a good rule of thumb based on what we're seeing today. And then in terms of pace and ability to make those allocations, there's 2 things we would highlight here. It does take a little bit of time, but it's not that much. And we've spoken over the last several quarters about investments we've been making in the business.

當然。顯然，這會隨著時間的推移而演變。我們希望在這裡提供幫助和建設性。我想說，從長遠來看，我們預計將大約 1/3 的資本投入長期私募基金，另外 1/3 左右可能投入投資級信貸，另外 1/3 左右可能投入流動信貸。根據我們今天所看到的情況，這可能是一個很好的經驗法則。然後就進行這些分配的速度和能力而言，我們在這裡要強調兩件事。這確實需要一點時間，但也不是那麼多。在過去的幾個季度中，我們一直在談論我們在該業務中進行的投資。

One of the key areas of investment has been into the insurance franchise, such that we are very well positioned to deploy this capital starting last week when AEL closed. And it's great that those investments and costs that weren't previously being offset by revenue now have fees to be paired against. So as a general rule, I would say it will probably take somewhere in the 2- to 3-year time frame in order to frame out those allocations.

投資的關鍵領域之一是保險特許經營權，因此我們完全有能力從上週 AEL 關閉時開始部署這筆資金。令人高興的是，那些以前沒有被收入抵消的投資和成本現在可以與之配對的費用。因此，作為一般規則，我認為可能需要 2 到 3 年的時間框架來制定這些分配。

Our next question comes from the line of Geoffrey Kwan with RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Geoffrey Kwan。

I also wanted to just talk on credit. I know Hadley talked about it a little bit, just -- but given the growth in the credit platform and a more diverse credit product offering. Can you talk maybe a bit about the competitive environment around putting that capital to work and how you see your competitive advantage in deploying that capital within credit?

我也想只談賒帳。我知道哈德利只是稍微談過這一點，但考慮到信貸平台的成長和更多樣化的信貸產品。您能否談談將這些資本投入使用的競爭環境，以及您如何看待在信貸中部署這些資本的競爭優勢？

Thanks, Geoff. I can take that answer. So if you -- I guess the short answer is it's very strong. If you think about 2023 and especially the first half, there was a lot of market disruption, which was the upside to our credit business. Today, there is more liquidity in the market, but we continue to find attractive opportunities. If you take a step back, we have a long record and have proven that we can deploy through various market cycles, earning attractive returns for our credit businesses. And we can do this for a few reasons. One, we have a strong asset knowledge across all the sectors we invest in. We can provide more than just capital, making us a partner of choice, and we can provide all parts of the capital structure from debt to equity and in between, leading to more proprietary deal flow. And finally, I would say we can provide certainty of capital with quick execution on large ticket sizes, limiting the competition.

謝謝，傑夫。我可以接受這個答案。所以如果你——我想簡短的回答是它非常強大。如果你想想 2023 年，尤其是上半年，你會發現很多市場混亂，這對我們的信貸業務來說是有利的。如今，市場上的流動性有所增加，但我們仍在繼續尋找有吸引力的機會。如果退一步看，我們擁有悠久的記錄，並且已經證明我們可以在各種市場週期中進行部署，為我們的信貸業務賺取可觀的回報。我們可以這樣做有幾個原因。第一，我們在所投資的所有領域都擁有豐富的資產知識。所有部分，領先更專有的交易流程。最後，我想說，我們可以透過大額票據的快速執行來提供資本的確定性，從而限制競爭。

It's also important to note that there continues to be areas of scarcity of capital in today's environment. Banks have pulled back -- regional banks are not as active, which has been very helpful for our Castlelake business and their asset-based sectors, the real estate and infrastructure markets in particular. And then when you add on maturity walls and unsustainable capital structures, that's an advantageous point for Oaktree and the growth of their business.

同樣重要的是要注意，在當今的環境中仍然存在資本稀缺的領域。銀行已經退出——區域銀行不再那麼活躍，這對我們的卡斯爾萊克業務及其以資產為基礎的行業，特別是房地產和基礎設施市場非常有幫助。然後，當你加上成熟度牆和不可持續的資本結構時，這對橡樹資本及其業務成長來說是一個優勢點。

So in essence, it's a good time to have dry powder for us.

所以本質上來說，現在是我們吃乾粉的好時機。

Okay. That's helpful. And my second question was back on Investor Day, the 5-year FBC target implied, I think it was roughly about an 18% CAGR. And I recall also assumed no acquisitions, so maybe something like the AEL. But essentially, when you look at Q1, it was up 6% year-over-year. Obviously, it was hit in part by the decline in share price of the affiliates. Fund raising should be a tailwind. But if monetization markets improve, that would also temper some of that FBC growth. So my question is, looking at your crystal ball, when you take a look at 2024, and if we exclude the $50 billion from AEL, do you see FBC growth this year being, say, above that 18% in line or perhaps a bit below that?

好的。這很有幫助。我的第二個問題是在投資者日提出的，FBC 的 5 年目標暗示，我認為複合年增長率大約是 18%。我記得還假設沒有收購，所以可能是 AEL 之類的東西。但本質上，當你看第一季時，你會發現它比去年同期成長了 6%。顯然，它在一定程度上受到了關聯公司股價下跌的打擊。籌集資金應該是一個順風車。但如果貨幣化市場有所改善，這也會在一定程度上抑制 FBC 的成長。所以我的問題是，看看你的水晶球，當你看看 2024 年時，如果我們排除 AEL 中的 500 億美元，你認為今年的 FBC 增長是否會高於 18%，或者可能會稍微高一點低於那個？

Thanks, Geoff. Maybe the way we would frame it is, obviously, that 18% CAGR may fluctuate a little bit year-to-year. But there's nothing about this year that is going to be out of line with that broader trend. The way that we would really characterize this quarter across, let's say, all the key drivers of the business, whether it be deployment, whether it be fundraising, whether it be monetizations is there are -- there is tremendous momentum. And a number of the growth initiatives that we've locked in, in Q1 are going to drive significant amounts of growth in the latter part of this year.

謝謝，傑夫。顯然，我們的框架可能是，18% 的複合年增長率可能會逐年略有波動。但今年沒有任何事情會與這個更廣泛的趨勢脫節。我們真正描述本季業務的所有關鍵驅動因素的方式，無論是部署、融資、貨幣化，都有巨大的動力。我們在第一季鎖定的許多成長舉措將在今年下半年推動大幅成長。

Our expanding credit franchise is going to allow us to raise more organic capital our expanding wealth solutions franchise is going to allow us to bring more inflows into that business. So one year to another might be slightly above or below that long-term trend, but there's certainly nothing about what we're seeing in the market that disrupts our perspective of that very high teens type CAGR going forward.

我們不斷擴大的信貸特許經營權將使我們能夠籌集更多的有機資本，我們不斷擴大的財富解決方案特許經營權將使我們能夠為該業務帶來更多資金流入。因此，一年又一年可能會略高於或低於長期趨勢，但我們在市場上看到的情況肯定不會擾亂我們對未來非常高的青少年複合年增長率的看法。

And Geoff, it's Bahir. And I'll just add on to that from what Connor said. As I noted in my remarks, if you just looked at our private fund strategies, the activity that's going on in credit and insurance year-over-year. Our fee-bearing capital was actually up 15%. So there was a bit of noise that you correctly highlighted in your question for sure. But definitely, as Connor said, there's nothing sort of strange here in what happened in the first quarter with respect to sort of the fundamentals of the business and most importantly, our outlook with respect to growth in the future.

傑夫，我是巴希爾。我將補充康納所說的內容。正如我在發言中指出的那樣，如果您只看一下我們的私募基金策略，您會發現信貸和保險領域逐年發生的活動。我們的收費資本實際上增加了 15%。因此，您在問題中肯定正確地突出顯示了一些噪音。但正如康納所說，就業務基本面以及最重要的是我們對未來成長的前景而言，第一季發生的事情並沒有什麼奇怪的。

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的布萊恩‧比德爾 (Brian Bedell)。

Maybe just one on the -- I think you referenced that you were able to refinance some portfolio company debt at attractive spreads. Maybe if I can tie that in with also the deployment in the credit business and what's increasingly on sustainable capital structures across many businesses. Can you talk about how are you reviewing that refinancing wall both from your portfolio company perspective and also the opportunity within credit to deploy that capital and whether that's sort of a rising potential on a sequential basis as we move throughout the year and deploying that capital?

也許只是其中之一——我想您提到您能夠以有吸引力的利差為一些投資組合公司債務進行再融資。也許我可以將其與信貸業務的部署以及許多企業日益增長的可持續資本結構聯繫起來。您能否談談您如何從投資組合公司的角度以及信貸中部署該資本的機會來審查再融資牆，以及隨著我們全年的行動和部署該資本，這種潛力是否會連續上升？

Brian, thanks for the question. Perhaps let us come at this a slightly different way and just tell you what we're seeing in the market. We often get asked the question, do you expect to be a bigger buyer or a bigger seller in the current market environment? And what is unique about the market right now, and this won't last forever, but it's incredibly constructive is we expect to absolutely be both in scale given what we're seeing in terms of the economic cycle right now.

布萊恩，謝謝你的提問。也許讓我們以稍微不同的方式來討論這個問題，並告訴您我們在市場上看到的情況。我們經常被問到這樣的問題：在當前的市場環境下，您希望成為更大的買家還是更大的賣家？目前市場的獨特之處在於，這種情況不會永遠持續下去，但鑑於我們目前所看到的經濟週期，我們預計絕對會規模化。

At the same time, due to things you mentioned, unsustainable capital structures, some ambitious growth that didn't play out in certain businesses. we are seeing incredible opportunities to deploy capital at scale, while at the same time, the big trends that we've been investing in digitalization, decarbonization, deglobalization, those continue to only accelerate. So it is an incredibly constructive market us to continue to put capital to work.

同時，由於你提到的事情，不可持續的資本結構，一些雄心勃勃的成長並沒有在某些業務中發揮作用。我們看到了大規模部署資本的絕佳機會，同時，我們一直在數位化、脫碳、去全球化方面投資的大趨勢，這些趨勢只會繼續加速。因此，這是一個非常有建設性的市場，我們可以繼續投入資金。

Well, at the exact same time, we have seen an extremely robust bid come back to the market for high-quality derisked assets. And we're starting to see that, as Bruce mentioned, in our private equity and real estate businesses. But quite frankly, we're seeing it across the entire franchise. And our derisked and high-quality assets within renewable power within infrastructure, we expect to be very active on both the investment and the monetization side this year.

嗯，同時，我們看到市場對高品質去風險資產的出價極為強勁。正如布魯斯所提到的，我們開始在我們的私募股權和房地產業務中看到這一點。但坦白說，我們在整個系列中都看到了這一點。我們在基礎設施內再生能源領域的低風險優質資產，預計今年在投資和貨幣化方面都將非常活躍。

So when it comes to your question specifically about credit, we are seeing that bifurcation as well. Within our high-quality businesses that we have effectuated the business plan, they are now stable. They are growing. Their margins are expanding. We're seeing the opportunity, as Bruce mentioned, to refinance those businesses at really attractive rates and put them in a great position to be monetized in the next 1 or 2 or 3 years.

因此，當談到您具體有關信貸的問題時，我們也看到了這種分歧。在我們已經實施了商業計劃的優質業務中，它們現在很穩定。他們正在成長。他們的利潤正在擴大。正如布魯斯所提到的，我們看到了以極具吸引力的利率為這些企業再融資的機會，並使它們在未來 1、2 或 3 年內處於有利的貨幣化地位。

At the same time, we are looking to capitalize on some of the market dynamics where businesses are over-levered and we can buy great assets that simply have imperfect capital structures, and that's also going to be a big theme for us for the next 2 or 3 quarters.

同時，我們希望利用一些企業過度槓桿化的市場動態，我們可以購買資本結構不完善的優質資產，這也將成為我們未來 2 年的一大主題或 3 個季度。

That's great color. And maybe just one on the FRE margin and expense growth. I think we were looking for low double-digit expense growth this year in '24 and an FRE margin that could expand to that -- around that 58% level. Just was wondering if that's still intact as you scale the businesses sequentially throughout the year?

那顏色真棒。也許只是關於 FRE 利潤率和費用成長的一個。我認為，我們希望今年 24 年的費用成長能夠實現兩位數的低成長，並且 FRE 利潤率可能會擴大到這一水平——大約 58% 的水平。只是想知道，當您全年按順序擴展業務時，這種情況是否仍然完好無損？

Brian, it's Bahir. Thanks for the question. Look, I'd say compared to the -- let me just talk about results in general. Compared to the prior year. We obviously had a delay closing on the insurance asset management mandate that we got from American Equity Life. So that, in addition to the fact that our permanent capital vehicles, the trading prices on those came off during the quarter, which we see as a temporary issue.

布萊恩，我是巴希爾。謝謝你的提問。聽著，我想說的是，與--讓我談談一般結果。與上一年相比。顯然，我們從美國股票人壽獲得的保險資產管理授權延遲了。因此，除了我們的永久資本工具之外，這些工具的交易價格在本季也有所下降，我們認為這是一個暫時的問題。

If you just factor those 2 impacts alone. So not saying that the share prices should be higher than last year, but let's just assume that they were flat to last year and had AEL have closed earlier. You would have just seen and without us doing any fundraising this year without us doing much capital deployment, et cetera, those 2 impacts alone would have meant that our FRE per share would have gone up in the low double digits.

如果你只考慮這兩個影響。因此，並不是說股價應該高於去年，而是假設股價與去年持平，而 AEL 提前收盤。你可能已經看到，如果我們今年沒有進行任何籌款，沒有​​進行大量的資本部署等，僅這兩個影響就意味著我們的每股 FRE 將會以較低的兩位數增長。

So then on expenses, they were up by, I believe, 9% compared to the prior year and just the increase -- the magnitude of that increase has come down quite significantly, which we seem to be something that should stay pretty consistent across the year. So as a result of -- when -- another point Connor mentioned on his remarks is the fundraising should be a lot more spread out this year. We see lots of areas to deploy capital.

因此，在費用方面，我相信與前一年相比，增長了 9%，而且只是增長——增長的幅度已經相當顯著下降，我們似乎應該在整個國家保持相當一致的水平。因此，康納在演講中提到的另一點是，今年的募款活動應該會更加分散。我們看到很多領域可以部署資本。

So just the impacts of all of that should mean that margins should improve quite a bit in future quarters. So still maintain that guidance that we told the market in the previous -- last year.

因此，所有這些的影響應該意味著未來幾季的利潤率應該會大幅提高。因此，仍然維持我們去年告訴市場的指導。

Our next question comes from the line of Nik Priebe with CIBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 CIBC 資本市場部的 Nik Priebe。

Okay. If I caught the comments on Castlelake earlier correctly, you're writing a $350 million check to acquire the 51% GP interest. That, in turn, is expected to generate $40 million of FRE, that implies a transaction multiple of about 9x. That just strike me as a bit low. So is that $40 million figure quoted in the letter on a 100% basis rather than a BAM share? Or was there some other nuance in the way that, that transaction was priced? Just a bit of color on that would be helpful.

好的。如果我之前對 Castlelake 的評論正確的話，那麼您正在寫一張 3.5 億美元的支票來收購 51% 的 GP 權益。預計這將產生 4000 萬美元的 FRE，這意味著交易倍數約為 9 倍。這讓我覺得有點低。那麼，信中引用的 4,000 萬美元數字是 100% 的，而不是 BAM 股份嗎？或者該交易的定價方式是否存在其他細微差別？只需一點顏色就會有所幫助。

Thanks, Nik. And just -- I believe you got that all absolutely right, but I want to clarify. So the $500 million will be invested from BAM, about $350 million of that is to acquire the FRE. BAM will also invest an additional $150 million. The incremental $150 million will be to acquire some of Castlelake's current carry as well as fund our proportionate share of the GP stakes within the Castlelake business. Your $350 million for our 51% of the FRE is -- compares to $40 million, which is, again, 51% of the FRE. So your directional multiple is correct.

謝謝，尼克。只是——我相信你說的完全正確，但我想澄清一下。因此，BAM 將投資 5 億美元，其中約 3.5 億美元將用於收購 FRE。 BAM 也將額外投資 1.5 億美元。新增的 1.5 億美元將用於收購 Castlelake 現有的部分股權，並為我們在 Castlelake 業務中按比例持有的 GP 股份提供資金。您的 3.5 億美元佔 FRE 的 51%，而 4000 萬美元則佔 FRE 的 51%。所以你的方向倍數是正確的。

The one thing I would highlight is $40 million is what we expect to see over the next 12 months so it is very much a forward-looking multiple as opposed to an LTM multiple. And that's probably a little bit of a nuance in terms of why it looks a bit low to you.

我要強調的一件事是，我們預計在未來 12 個月內會看到 4000 萬美元，因此它是一個非常前瞻性的倍數，而不是 LTM 倍數。就為什麼它對你來說看起來有點低而言，這可能有點細微差別。

Okay. That's very helpful. And then are you also able to see what it costs to acquire the incremental 5% interest in Oaktree? And maybe what that represented as a multiple of FRE?

好的。這非常有幫助。那麼您是否也能看到收購橡樹資本增量 5% 權益的成本是多少？也許 FRE 的倍數代表什麼？

Yes, sure. So our investment to acquire -- or BAM's investment in that incremental stake of Oaktree was about $275 million. It's important to recognize that we have a formulaic calculation with Oaktree that was put in place at the time of our partnership 5 years ago and very similar to what you saw with us when we spun out the asset manager -- Brookfield Asset Management buys the FRE from Oaktree. And [BN] buys the historic carry and some of the balance sheet positions from Oaktree. So -- our multiple on the $275 million that was invested in the FRE of Oaktree is based on the formula and the multiple in that formula is 13.5x.

是的，當然。因此，我們收購橡樹資本增量股權的投資，或者說 BAM 的投資約為 2.75 億美元。重要的是要認識到，我們與橡樹資本有一個公式化的計算，該計算是在5 年前我們合作時制定的，與我們分拆資產管理公司時所看到的非常相似- 布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司收購了FRE來自橡樹。 [BN]從橡樹資本購買了歷史套利和一些資產負債表頭寸。因此，我們投資於橡樹資本 FRE 的 2.75 億美元的倍數是基於該公式的，該公式中的倍數是 13.5 倍。

Our next question comes from the line of Ken Worthington with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自肯·沃辛頓與摩根大通的對話。

The U.S. Department of Labor recently finalized best interest rules and I think those rules hit the National Register this past April. Do you have any sense of what portion of AEL's business might be impacted by the new rules? And do you see them as sort of a risk or opportunity to the $15 billion to $20 billion of annual sales that you're sort of projecting in insurance?

美國勞工部最近最終確定了最佳利益規則，我認為這些規則已在今年四月進入國家登記冊。您是否知道 AEL 的哪些業務可能會受到新規則的影響？對於您預計的保險業年銷售額 150 億至 200 億美元，您認為它們是風險還是機會？

So maybe I'll just start and Bahir or others if you want to weigh in. I think our enthusiasm and growth about the potential sales of -- within our insurance platform are really driven by 2 things. First and foremost, we think we have a best-in-class platform that has only been enhanced by the acquisition of AEL and therefore, they should grow along with the broader market, if not increase some modest market share increases going forward.

因此，如果您想參與進來，也許我會開始，巴希爾或其他人。首先也是最重要的是，我們認為我們擁有一個一流的平台，只有透過收購 AEL 才能增強該平台，因此，它們應該與更廣泛的市場一起成長，即使未來市場份額不會增加。

And then the second thing to highlight is just the demographic support that we are seeing for the annuities business that AEL and our broader wealth solutions provides. And the fact that we always really focus on is -- maybe just a fun fact for everyone on the call, this year will be the highest year ever in the United States for people turning 65. That record will be broken every year for the next 7 years, and the total number of people above 65 is going to double between now and 2040.

接下來要強調的第二件事是我們看到 AEL 和我們更廣泛的財富解決方案為年金業務提供的人口支持。我們始終真正關注的事實是——也許對每個參加電話會議的人來說都是一個有趣的事實，今年將是美國 65 歲生日人數最多的一年。年後，從現在到2040年，65歲以上的人口總數將翻倍。

Those are the meaningful dynamics that drive the growth in our insurance business going forward. And that's why we have so much confidence in terms of some of the changes that have been made we really don't see them disrupting that trend, but perhaps Bahir, I'll let you provide a comment.

這些都是推動我們保險業務未來成長的有意義的動力。這就是為什麼我們對已經做出的一些改變如此有信心，我們確實不認為它們會破壞這一趨勢，但也許巴希爾，我會讓你發表評論。

Thanks, Connor. Look, I agree with all of that. I would just say that larger-scale companies such as ourselves, will be just better equipped to handle these new regulations.

謝謝，康納。聽著，我同意所有這些。我只想說，像我們這樣的大型公司將更有能力應對這些新法規。

Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Jason Fooks for closing remarks.

謝謝。現在我想將會議交還給傑森·福克斯（Jason Fooks）做閉幕詞。

Okay. Great. Thanks. If anyone should have any additional questions on today's announcement, please feel free to contact me directly. Otherwise, thank you all for joining us.

好的。偉大的。謝謝。如果有人對今天的公告有任何其他疑問，請隨時直接與我聯繫。否則，謝謝大家加入我們。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接。