Brookfield Business Partners LP (BBU) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Brookfield Business Partners third-quarter 2025 results conference call-in webcast. (Operator Instructions) Now I'd like to turn the conference over to Alan Fleming, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Fleming.

歡迎參加 Brookfield Business Partners 2025 年第三季業績電話會議網路直播。（操作員指示）現在我將會議交給投資者關係主管艾倫·弗萊明。請繼續，弗萊明先生。

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that in responding to questions and talking about our growth initiatives and our financial and operating performance, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, and future results may differ materially. For further information on known risk factors, I encourage you to review our filings with the securities regulators in Canada and the US, which are available on our website.

謝謝接線員，早安。在開始之前，我想提醒各位，在回答問題以及談論我們的成長計畫和財務及營運績效時，我們可能會做出前瞻性陳述。這些聲明存在已知和未知風險，未來結果可能與這些聲明有重大差異。有關已知風險因素的更多信息，我建議您查閱我們在加拿大和美國證券監管機構提交的文件，這些文件可在我們的網站上查閱。

We'll begin the call this morning with a business update from Anuj Ranjan, our Chief Executive Officer. Anuj will then turn the call over to Adrian Letts, Head of our Global Business Operations team, to provide an update on the progress we're making at two of our most recent acquisitions. Jaspreet Dehl, our Chief Financial Officer, will finish with a discussion of our financial performance for the quarter. After we finish our prepared remarks, the team will then be available to take your questions.

今天上午的電話會議將首先由我們的執行長 Anuj Ranjan 帶來業務最新進展報告。隨後，Anuj 將把電話轉交給全球業務營運團隊負責人 Adrian Letts，讓他介紹我們最近兩項收購的進度。我們的財務長 Jaspreet Dehl 將最後討論一下我們本季的財務表現。我們發言結束後，團隊成員將回答大家的問題。

With that, I'd like to now pass the call over to Anuj.

那麼，我現在想把電話交給阿努傑。

Thanks, Alan, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on the call today. We had a great quarter. We delivered strong financial results, made good progress in our growth and recycling initiatives, and continue to execute our strategy to create value for our shareholders.

謝謝你，艾倫，大家早安。感謝您今天參加我們的電話會議。我們這個季度表現出色。我們取得了強勁的財務業績，在成長和回收方面取得了良好進展，並將繼續執行我們的策略，為股東創造價值。

Since the start of the year, we've generated more than $2 billion of proceeds from our capital recycling program and repaid $1 billion of borrowings on our corporate credit facility. We've also bought back just over $160 million of our units and shares and invest an additional $525 million in the three exciting strategic growth acquisitions, including First National, which we just closed at the end of October.

今年以來，我們透過資本循環利用計畫獲得了超過 20 億美元的收益，並償還了公司信貸額度下的 10 億美元借款。我們還回購了價值超過 1.6 億美元的股份和單位，並額外投資 5.25 億美元用於三項令人興奮的策略性成長收購，其中包括我們在 10 月底剛完成的 First National 收購。

Apart from our growth initiatives, in September, we announced plans to simplify our corporate structure by converting all BBU LP units and BBU C shares into one new publicly traded Canadian corporation. We expect this reorganization will improve our trading liquidity, increase demand for our shares from index investors, and more generally, make our business more accessible for investors around the world.

除了我們的成長計劃外，9 月我們還宣布了簡化公司結構的計劃，將所有 BBU LP 單位和 BBU C 股份合併為一家新的加拿大上市公司。我們預計此次重組將改善我們的交易流動性，增加指數投資者對我們股票的需求，並且更普遍地，使世界各地的投資者更容易參與我們的業務。

The feedback from the market has been excellent, and since the announcement, our consolidated market cap has increased by nearly $1 billion. We're excited about the benefits this reorganization will bring to all of our investors, and we are on track to have it completed early in the new year.

市場反饋非常好，自公告發布以來，我們的合併市值增加了近 10 億美元。我們對重組將為所有投資者帶來的好處感到興奮，並且我們正按計劃推進，爭取在新年伊始完成重組。

Stepping back, we created our business almost a decade ago as a way to provide public investors access to Brookfield's global private equity business, which has been delivering top-tier returns for investors over the past 25 years. As a public company, we've been executing that same consistent strategy of acquiring high-quality, market-leading, vital businesses, and operationally transforming them into global champions.

回顧過去，我們大約十年前創立了這家公司，目的是讓公眾投資者能夠投資布魯克菲爾德的全球私募股權業務，該業務在過去 25 年中為投資者帶來了一流的回報。作為一家上市公司，我們一直秉持著同樣的策略，即收購高品質、市場領先、至關重要的企業，並透過營運轉型，將它們打造成為全球冠軍。

Each dollar that is recycled is reinvested by the same team to fuel that flywheel of our business and continue compounding long-term value. And while the price of our shares and units has significantly improved and is up approximately 150% over the past two years, our NAV has also continued to increase. This means that our trading discount, while it's narrowed, there's still more room to go as our NAV will continue to grow going forward.

每一美元的回收都會由同一團隊重新投資，以推動我們業務的飛輪式發展，並持續創造長期價值。雖然我們的股票和單位價格在過去兩年中大幅上漲了約 150%，但我們的淨資產價值也持續成長。這意味著，雖然我們的交易折價有所收窄，但由於我們的淨值將持續成長，因此仍有進一步縮小折價的空間。

Simply put, there's never been a better time to be a BBU investor. The fourth industrial revolution powered by AI is happening before our very eyes and is going to happen a lot faster than people think. The productivity improvements that need to be captured from all the capital investment going into the build-out of AI will be massive.

簡而言之，現在是投資 BBU 的最佳時機。由人工智慧驅動的第四次工業革命正在我們眼前發生，而且其速度將比人們想像的要快得多。人工智慧建設中投入的大量資本，需要從中獲得巨大的生產力提升。

What's exciting is that the bottleneck today isn't really the technology. It's actually the operators who have the need for change management and broader expertise to implement and properly transform businesses. That's where we come in. We have both access to capital, but more importantly, the strong operational capabilities to leverage AI as another tool in our toolkit to accelerate our value creation plans and ensure our businesses are positioned to be propelled and not disrupted by it.

令人興奮的是，如今的瓶頸其實並非技術。實際上，真正需要變革管理能力和更廣泛專業知識來實施和正確轉型業務的是營運商。這就是我們發揮作用的地方。我們不僅擁有資金，更重要的是，我們擁有強大的營運能力，能夠利用人工智慧作為我們工具箱中的又一工具，加速我們的價值創造計劃，並確保我們的業務能夠被人工智慧推動，而不是被其顛覆。

We're pleased with the progress we've achieved through the first three quarters of the year and are cautiously optimistic heading into the fourth quarter. Despite all the headlines, the broader global economy has remained relatively resilient. Public markets are at record highs in transaction activity, both in public and private markets continues to pick up, supported by the downward trajectory in global interest rates.

我們對今年前三個季度取得的進展感到滿意，並對進入第四季度持謹慎樂觀態度。儘管新聞報道鋪天蓋地，但全球經濟整體仍保持了相對的韌性。公開市場交易活動創歷史新高，公開市場和私募市場均持續回暖，這得益於全球利率的下行趨勢。

These are all powerful tailwinds for our business as we continue to execute our strategy and find accretive ways to service value for our shareholders. Before wrapping up, I'd like to thank everyone who was able to join us in September for our Annual Investor Day. We had a fantastic turnout, and it was great to see many of you in person. For anyone who missed it, the webcast and the materials are available on our website.

這些都是我們業務發展的強勁利好因素，我們將繼續執行我們的策略，並尋找能夠為股東創造價值的增值方式。在結束之前，我要感謝所有在九月參加我們年度投資者日的朋友們。這次活動到場人數非常多，很高興見到你們中的許多人。如果您錯過了直播，可以在我們的網站上觀看網路直播並取得相關資料。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Adrian.

接下來，我將把電話交給艾德里安。

Thank you, Anuj, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be joining you on the call today. We've been making great headway at the businesses we've acquired since the start of the year, and I want to spend some time today providing an update on where we've been focusing our efforts to advance our value creation plans.

謝謝你，阿努傑，大家早安。很高興今天能和大家一起參加電話會議。今年以來，我們在收購的業務方面取得了巨大進展，今天我想花些時間向大家報告一下我們為推進價值創造計劃而重點投入的領域。

Let me start with the acquisition of Chemelex. As a reminder, Chemelex is a global leader in electric heat management solutions, providing mission-critical temperature control systems used to regulate temperature across a wide range of industrial and infrastructure applications. Chemelex has a number of things we look for in high-quality industrial businesses: it's a market leader; its products are low absolute cost but have a high cost of failure; and the business generates a majority of its earnings from recurring aftermarket revenue, which underpins durable earnings and cash profile.

讓我先從收購 Chemelex 開始說起。再次提醒，Chemelex 是全球領先的電熱管理解決方案供應商，提供用於調節各種工業和基礎設施應用中溫度的關鍵任務溫度控制系統。Chemelex 具備我們尋找高品質工業企業所應具備的諸多特質：它是市場領導者；其產品絕對成本低，但故障成本高；而且該企業的大部分收益來自經常性的售後市場收入，這支撐了其穩定的收益和現金流狀況。

In addition to its strong underlying fundamentals, what made this acquisition particularly interesting to us was the value creation opportunity. The business was a carve-out of a carve-out and had been non-core to a series of previous corporate owners. We saw a clear path to margin improvement by adding a strong management team and improving operational efficiency.

除了其強勁的基本面之外，此次收購最吸引我們的是其創造價值的機會。該業務是從另一家公司剝離出來的，對於之前的幾家公司所有者來說都不是核心業務。我們看到，透過組建一支強大的管理團隊和提高營運效率，可以明確地提高利潤率。

With any business that we acquire, being able to hit the ground running, having the right management team in place out of the gates, establishing a transformation office to drive accountability, and crystallizing optimization savings as quickly as possible is so important to what we do and fundamental to our success. That's exactly what we've done at Chemelex, and I'm really pleased with the tremendous amount of progress we've achieved in just over six months of owning the business.

對於我們收購的任何企業而言，能夠迅速開展業務、從一開始就擁有合適的管理團隊、建立轉型辦公室以推動問責制以及盡快實現優化節省，對於我們的工作至關重要，也是我們成功的根本。這正是我們在 Chemelex 所做的，我對我們在接管公司短短六個多月內取得的巨大進步感到非常滿意。

Since closing, we've got off to a strong start, completing the carve-out and rebrand of the business as a standalone company. We strengthened the management team and set up a transformation office to guide operational changes and refocus the business after years of being an underappreciated segment under previous owners.

自從公司關閉以來，我們取得了強勁的開局，完成了業務的剝離和品牌重塑，使其成為一家獨立公司。我們加強了管理團隊，並設立了轉型辦公室，以指導營運變革，並在前所有者多年未給予足夠重視之後，重新聚焦業務。

Alongside new leadership, we built our 100-day plan focused on identifying cost-saving opportunities and executing commercial initiatives aimed at rationalizing low-volume SKUs and improving margins primarily in our aftermarket product business. We also put in place a new go-to-market strategy aimed at driving growth through expansion into new verticals and geographies.

在新領導層的帶領下，我們制定了為期 100 天的計劃，重點是尋找節省成本的機會，並執行旨在合理化低銷售 SKU 和提高利潤率的商業舉措，主要針對我們的售後產品業務。我們還制定了一項新的市場進入策略，旨在透過拓展新的垂直領域和地理來推動成長。

Finally, we completed a project plan to optimize our manufacturing footprint and our primary production facility. Our investment will enhance equipment, improve measurement and sensing via AI and machine learning, as well as enhanced process flow from an improved layout, all of which we expect will increase throughput, reduce labor costs, and improve product lead time.

最後，我們完成了優化製造佈局和主要生產設施的專案計劃。我們的投資將提升設備性能，透過人工智慧和機器學習改進測量和感測技術，並透過改進佈局來增強流程，所有這些都將提高產量，降低勞動力成本，並縮短產品交付週期。

We're also off to a strong start in Antylia Scientific, which we acquired in May this year. As a reminder, Antylia is a leading manufacturer and distributor of specialty consumable products and equipment for lab-based testing and research markets. Antylia has a sticky base of over 50,000 customers, producing high-quality mission-critical products that support accuracy and repeatability for lab-based processes.

我們今年 5 月收購的 Antylia Scientific 公司也取得了強勁的開局。再次提醒，Antylia 是實驗室測試和研究市場專用耗材和設備的領先製造商和經銷商。Antylia 擁有超過 50,000 名忠實客戶，生產高品質的關鍵任務產品，支援實驗室流程的準確性和可重複性。

Our value creation plans are progressing well. We've strengthened the leadership team to accelerate execution, enhanced our go-to-market efforts with key sales and product highs. In addition, we're working to enhance the business's digital capabilities like search engine optimization and an AI quoting tool that will improve sales productivity while also building out the business's e-commerce presence. We've deployed significant resource to jumpstart our value creation initiatives and are working on improvement opportunities across procurement, site rationalization, and automation of the manufacturing and distribution process.

我們的價值創造計劃進展順利。我們加強了領導團隊以加快執行速度，並透過關鍵的銷售和產品亮點提升了我們的市場推廣工作。此外，我們正在努力提升公司的數位化能力，例如搜尋引擎優化和人工智慧報價工具，這將提高銷售效率，同時拓展公司的電子商務業務。我們投入了大量資源來啟動我們的價值創造計劃，並且正在努力尋找在採購、場地合理化以及製造和分銷流程自動化方面的改進機會。

With that, I'll hand it over to Jaspreet for a review of our financial results.

接下來，我將把這份報告交給賈斯普雷特，讓他審核我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Adrian, and good morning, everyone. Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $575 million compared to $844 million in the prior period. Current period results reflect the impact of lower ownership in three businesses following the partial sale of our interest and includes $77 million of tax benefits. This compares to $296 million of tax benefits included in the prior year results.

謝謝你，艾德里安，大家早安。第三季調整後 EBITDA 為 5.75 億美元，上一季為 8.44 億美元。本期業績反映了我們部分出售股份後，三家企業的持股比例下降的影響，並包含 7,700 萬美元的稅收優惠。相比之下，上一年業績中包含的稅收優惠為 2.96 億美元。

Excluding tax benefits and contribution from acquired and disposed operations, adjusted EBITDA was $512 million compared to $501 million in the prior period. Adjusted EFO of $284 million during the quarter benefited from lower current tax expense at our advanced energy storage operation and lower interest expense due to the reduction in corporate borrowings compared to last year.

剔除稅收優惠和收購及處置業務的貢獻後，調整後的 EBITDA 為 5.12 億美元，而上一時期為 5.01 億美元。本季調整後的 EFO 為 2.84 億美元，這得益於我們先進儲能業務的當期稅費支出降低，以及與去年相比，由於公司借款減少而導致的利息支出降低。

Turning to segment performance. Our Industrial segment generated third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $316 million compared to $500 million in the prior period. Including the impact of tax benefits, segment performance increased 17% over the prior year.

接下來分析細分市場表現。我們的工業部門第三季調整後 EBITDA 為 3.16 億美元，而上一季為 5 億美元。計入稅收優惠的影響，該業務板塊業績較上年增長17%。

Increased underlying performance at our advanced energy storage operation was driven by higher overall volumes, growing demand for higher margin advanced batteries, and continued benefits from operational and commercial improvement initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA of our engineered components manufacturer increased on a same-store basis compared to prior year after adjusting for the impact of a partial sale of our interest in the business earlier this year. Improved performance reflects higher volumes driven by recent customer wins and the benefit of commercial actions and ongoing optimization initiatives, which are supporting resilient margins despite relatively weak market conditions.

我們先進儲能業務基礎性能的提升，得益於整體銷售的成長、對高利潤率先進電池日益增長的需求，以及營運和商業改進舉措帶來的持續效益。經調整後，我們工程零件製造商的同店調整後 EBITDA 與上年同期相比有所增長，這已扣除了今年早些時候出售我們在該業務中的部分權益的影響。業績的提升反映了近期贏得客戶帶來的銷售成長，以及商業活動和持續優化措施帶來的效益，這些因素在市場環境相對疲軟的情況下支撐了穩健的利潤率。

Moving to our Business Services segment, we generated third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $188 million compared to $228 million last year. Current period results reflect an $11 million impact related to the sale of a partial interest in our dealer software and technology services operations.

再來看我們的業務服務部門，第三季調整後 EBITDA 為 1.88 億美元，去年同期為 2.28 億美元。本期業績反映了出售我們在經銷商軟體和技術服務業務中的部分權益所帶來的 1,100 萬美元的影響。

Our residential mortgage insurer continues to benefit from resilient demand across the business's served market segment, which includes first-time homebuyers as well as low losses on claims. Results during the quarter reflected the timing impact of slower revenue recognition under the IFRS 17 accounting standard due to more conservative model assumptions given an uncertain Canadian economic outlook.

我們的住宅抵押貸款保險公司繼續受益於其服務市場領域（包括首次購房者）的強勁需求，以及較低的索賠損失。本季業績反映了 IFRS 17 會計準則下收入確認速度放緩的時間影響，這是由於加拿大經濟前景不明朗，採用了更保守的模型假設。

At our dealer software and technology services operation, stable bookings were supported by continued renewal activity and commercial initiatives, which largely offset the impact of customer churn during the quarter. The results also reflect the impact of ongoing strategic investments to strengthen its customer service and product offerings.

在我們的經銷商軟體和技術服務營運方面，穩定的訂單量得益於持續的續約活動和商業舉措，這在很大程度上抵消了本季客戶流失的影響。結果也反映了公司為加強客戶服務和產品供應而進行的持續策略投資的影響。

Finally, our Infrastructure Services segment generated third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $104 million compared to $146 million during the same quarter last year. Results reflect the sale of our offshore oil services shuttle tanker operation and a $7 million impact related to the sale of a partial interest in our work access services operation earlier this year.

最後，我們的基礎設施服務部門第三季調整後 EBITDA 為 1.04 億美元，而去年同期為 1.46 億美元。結果反映了我們出售海上石油服務穿梭油輪業務以及今年稍早出售我們工作通道服務業務的部分權益所帶來的 700 萬美元影響。

Stable performance at our lottery service operation benefited from improved margin performance driven by productivity gains and favorable mix of services despite the timing of terminal deliveries, which were lower compared to the prior period. The business is focused on executing a significant pipeline of system implementations, which include the rollout of digital lottery services in the UK, which is expected to go live early next year.

儘管終端交付時間較上期有所下降，但由於生產力提高和服務組合的有利性，我們的彩票服務業務表現穩定，利潤率也得到了改善。該公司專注於執行一系列重要的系統實施項目，其中包括在英國推出數位彩票服務，預計明年初上線。

Turning to our balance sheet and capital allocation priorities, we ended the quarter with approximately $2.9 billion of pro forma liquidity at the corporate level, including the fair value of units we received in exchange for the sale of partial interest to the new Brookfield Evergreen Fund earlier this year. We're in a great position with significant liquidity and flexibility to support our growth and balance capital allocation priorities.

再來看我們的資產負債表和資本配置優先事項，本季末，我們在公司層級擁有約 29 億美元的備考流動資金，其中包括我們今年稍早出售部分權益給新的 Brookfield Evergreen Fund 所獲得的單位的公允價值。我們擁有充足的流動資金和靈活性，處於非常有利的地位，可以支持我們的成長並平衡資本配置優先事項。

To that end, during the quarter, we renewed our normal cost issuer bid, which provides us with the ability to buy back an additional 8 million units and shares. As a reminder, in February, we launched our current $250 million buyback program, and as Anuj mentioned, to date, we've repurchased just under $160 million of units and shares under this program. Going forward, we'll continue to remain opportunistic when it comes to our repurchase activity, balanced against our continued growth objectives.

為此，本季我們續簽了正常成本發行人回購協議，使我們能夠額外回購 800 萬單位和股份。提醒一下，今年 2 月，我們啟動了目前的 2.5 億美元股票回購計劃，正如 Anuj 所提到的，到目前為止，我們已根據該計劃回購了近 1.6 億美元的股份。展望未來，我們將繼續在回購活動中保持機會主義，同時兼顧我們持續成長的目標。

With that, I'd like to close our prepared remarks and turn the call back to the operator for questions.

至此，我的發言就到此結束，現在把電話交還給接線員，供大家提問。

(Operator Instructions) Devin Dodge, BMO Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）Devin Dodge，BMO 資本市場。

Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to start with a question on BRK. They had a regulatory filing last week about potentially pursuing an IPO. I was just wondering if an IPO, is that still the most likely path for an exit? And is the IPO market open in Brazil even with interest rates remaining quite high?

謝謝。早安.我想先問一個關於BRK的問題。他們上週提交了一份監管文件，內容是關於可能進行首次公開發行（IPO）。我只是想知道，IPO是否仍然是最可能的退出途徑？即使利率仍然很高，巴西的IPO市場是否仍開放？

Hi, Devin. It's Jaspreet. I could start and then Anuj can add anything that I've missed. I'd say, we've talked about BRK in the past. It is one of our more mature investments, and it is one that we're looking actively to monetize. IPO is one option that is available to us, and we always make sure that we keep all optionality.

嗨，德文。是賈斯普雷特。我可以先開始，然後Anuj可以補充我遺漏的內容。我想說，我們以前討論過BRK。這是我們較成熟的投資項目之一，我們正在積極尋求將其變現。IPO是我們可選擇的方案之一，我們始終確保保留所有選擇權。

The capital markets environment in Brazil is still difficult. Interest rates are high, but they seem to have peaked. So you're starting to see some green shoots. And we think BRK, it's an excellent business and it would make a great public company, so we're keeping that optionality open and having some early discussions to gauge interest. But it doesn't mean that there isn't other options that we would look at and review.

巴西的資本市場環境依然艱困。利率雖然很高，但似乎已經達到高峰。所以你開始看到一些好轉的跡象了。我們認為波克夏海瑟威公司是一家非常優秀的企業，它將成為一家很棒的上市公司，所以我們保留了這個選擇權，並進行了一些早期討論以評估各方的興趣。但這並不意味著我們沒有其他方案需要考慮和評估。

It makes sense. Maybe just to continue with BRK, it's been relatively quiet on investing in new concessions recently. Do you expect the business to be more active going forward or is financial leverage a bit too much of a constraint currently?

這很有道理。或許只是為了延續波克夏海瑟威的風格，它最近在投資新特許經營權方面相對低調。您預期公司未來會更加活躍，還是目前的財務槓桿過高，構成了一定的限制？

The focus has been twofold in the business. One has been just operational initiatives to continue to increase margins and EBITDA, which the team has done a great job. EBITDA is up, I think, in the double-digits in the business year over year.

公司業務的重點有兩個面向。其中一項舉措是持續提高利潤率和 EBITDA，團隊在這方面做得非常出色。我認為，該業務的 EBITDA 年成長了兩位數。

And the second piece has been around the concessions that we do have continuing to appropriately allocate capital to the development of the underlying concessions. Get our inflation and other increases that were allowed under the existing concessions. So there's been a lot of focus on that side as opposed to going out and looking for inorganic growth. So the organic growth within the business, we're quite happy with.

第二點是圍繞我們現有的特許權，繼續適當地將資金分配給相關特許權的開發。取得我們在現有優惠政策下允許的通貨膨脹和其他成長。因此，公司把很多精力放在了這方面，而不是尋求外部成長。因此，我們對公司內部的自然成長感到非常滿意。

And look, we'll be opportunistic, but right now, our focus just given we've executed on everything that we wanted to do within BRK. We've created an incredible platform, which we think is going to be really valuable. And there continues to be a massive need in the country just around water treatment and sewage. And BRK and the platform we've created can play a really important role there. So we think there's lots of opportunities for growth, but our focus right now is more around monetizing the asset.

我們當然會抓住機會，但目前，我們的重點是我們已經在 BRK 內部完成了所有想做的事情。我們創建了一個非常棒的平台，我們認為它將非常有價值。該國在水處理和污水處理方面仍存在巨大需求。而 BRK 和我們創建的平台可以在這方面發揮非常重要的作用。所以我們認為有很多成長機會，但我們目前的重點更在於如何將資產變現。

Okay. It makes sense. And then just last question here for me on La Trobe. Lots of media coverage related to some actions taken by the regulator. Just can you provide a bit of context for the issues? Where it stands now? And if this has had much of an impact on the underlying fundamentals of the business, including redemptions?

好的。這很有道理。最後，關於拉籌伯大學，我還有一個問題。監管機構採取的一些行動引起了媒體的廣泛報導。您能否提供一些關於這些問題的背景資訊？現在情況如何？如果這給公司的基本面，包括贖回情況，帶來了多大的影響？

Yeah. Anuj here. I'll take that one. So La Trobe, I'd say, this issue is more of a disclosure issue that the regulators raised. The regulator does this quite often in Australia. It's happened, I think, 90 times in the last year or two to other fund managers. So it's something that our team are working through and are going to implement some changes probably over the next little while and just in some of the disclosures.

是的。我是阿努傑。我選那個。所以，拉籌伯大學，我認為，這個問題更多的是監管機構提出的資訊揭露問題。在澳大利亞，監管機構經常這樣做。我認為，在過去一兩年裡，其他基金經理人也遇到至少 90 次類似的情況。所以，我們的團隊正在研究這個問題，可能會在接下來的一段時間內，在一些資訊揭露方面做出一些改變。

It hasn't had any real impact to the underlying fundamentals of the business, which remain very strong. So the business is performing great, and it's doing really well. And we're still very confident in its future growth perspectives, and that many of the interested parties who are interested in La Trobe continue to see it the same way.

這並未對公司的基本面造成任何實際影響，公司的基本面依然非常強勁。所以公司業績非常好，發展勢頭很強。我們仍然對拉籌伯大學未來的發展前景充滿信心，而且許多對拉籌伯大學感興趣的各方也繼續持同樣的看法。

Gary Ho, Desjardins Capital Market.

Gary Ho，德斯賈丁資本市場。

Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe start off with Anuj here, just very high level. Just seeing the success of Nuclear and Westinghouse today just gets me thinking what could have been had BBU just kept that asset today. Just curious, does development of those assets make you consider keeping assets longer for the fullness of time to reap the full potential? Just want to pick your brain on that.

謝謝。早安.謝謝您回答我的問題。或許可以先從 Anuj 開始，他水準非常高。看到核能公司和西屋電氣如今的成功，我不禁想到，如果BBU當初保留了那項資產，今天又會是怎樣一番景象呢？我很好奇，這些資產的開發是否會讓您考慮長期持有這些資產，以充分發揮其潛力？我想請教你一下這個問題。

Yeah. Look, it's a great question. Westinghouse is an amazing business. It's done incredibly well after we sold it, as you all have seen. Many of the reasons it's doing incredibly well are things that would not have been knowable at the time that we sold it, and we had a very good outcome for the time that we owned it.

是的。你看，這是一個很好的問題。西屋電氣是一家了不起的企業。正如大家所看到的，自從我們賣掉它之後，它的表現非常出色。它表現得如此出色的許多原因，都是我們在出售它時無法預料到的，而且在我們擁有它的這段時間裡，我們獲得了非常好的結果。

I think our role, as we see it, is to buy and truly operationally transform these vital businesses to the global economy, and that's exactly what we did at Westinghouse. So it's a great playbook, and it's a great outcome that we're all still really proud of.

我認為，我們所扮演的角色，正如我們所看到的，是收購並真正從營運層面改造這些對全球經濟至關重要的企業，而這正是我們在西屋電氣所做的。所以這是一套很棒的策略，而且取得了我們所有人都引以為傲的出色結果。

Our goal is to make businesses so good that others find value in them, and they should all, frankly, after we exit, others should continue to do well off the businesses that we exit that we've done our job, right? So we don't have any regrets in that sense.

我們的目標是打造優秀的企業，讓其他人從中發現價值。坦白說，在我們退出之後，其他人也應該繼續從我們退出的企業中獲益，因為我們已經完成了我們的工作，對吧？所以從這個意義上講，我們沒有任何遺憾。

In terms of our strategy, the nice thing about BBU is it's always presented us a bit of that optionality of some businesses that we thought could be longer-term holders, that we could find that makes sense. And so I'd say, we've not changed our strategy.

就我們的策略而言，BBU 的好處在於它總是能給我們一些選擇，讓我們有機會長期持有我們認為合適的某些企業，從而發現這樣做是有意義的。所以我覺得，我們的策略並沒有改變。

From the beginning, we have co-invested alongside Brookfield's broader private equity business, and we have sometimes occasionally considered owning businesses on a more longer-term duration. And I think that optionality that we have continues to exist.

從一開始，我們就與 Brookfield 更廣泛的私募股權業務共同投資，有時也會考慮長期持有企業股份。我認為我們所擁有的這種選擇權依然存在。

We do, of course, look at many companies in our portfolio today, and some of them are exceptional. And if there was an opportunity to own them longer, we could always consider it. But I'd say, our focus still is on we want to compound value over the long term. And much of the compounding that we do is by improving those margins dramatically in the early years.

當然，我們現在會關注投資組合中的許多公司，其中一些公司非常出色。如果有機會持有它們更長時間，我們當然可以考慮。但我認為，我們的重點仍然是希望在長期內實現價值的複利成長。而我們實現的複利成長，很大程度上是透過在早期大幅提高這些利潤率來實現的。

And if we do our job right and we get paid the right value on exit, we still find that sometimes recycling that capital in the new opportunities where we can deploy that same playbook will allow us to generate these exceptional returns that we've done over the past 25 years.

如果我們把工作做好，並在退出時獲得應有的回報，我們仍然發現，有時將這些資本重新投入到我們可以運用相同策略的新機會中，將使我們能夠獲得過去 25 年來我們所獲得的非凡回報。

Yeah, that makes sense. And while I have you, can you maybe just talk about the new Evergreen Fund, the Brookfield Private Equity Fund? Are there other opportunities to further monetize parts of maybe BBU into these vehicles over time? Maybe talk about how you pick and choose these assets to sell?

嗯，有道理。趁您還在，能否談談新的常青基金，也就是布魯克菲爾德私募股權基金？隨著時間的推移，是否有其他機會將BBU等部件進一步貨幣化，並將其應用於這些車輛？或許可以談談你是如何挑選並出售這些資產的？

Sure. Maybe just to start with, we very recently launched the BP fund, as I think some of you saw in a press release in Canada. And what I can say is it's been going very well. We're very, very pleased with the results so far, and by next quarter, I assume that we will have some redemptions of that prep and be able to share more information in terms of the cash inflows to BBU as a result of that sale, which we think is going to be very successful.

當然。或許可以先從我們最近推出的 BP 基金說起，我想你們中的一些人已經在加拿大的新聞稿中看到了。我可以說的是，一切進展得非常順利。我們對目前為止的結果非常非常滿意，我預計到下個季度，我們將兌現一些準備金，並能夠分享更多關於此次出售給 BBU 的現金流入的信息，我們認為這次出售將會非常成功。

In terms of future opportunities, I'd say it's a function of two things. One is it is accretive for BBU and shareholders and the share price. And obviously, the share price since we did the first one is better today, but it's still a material discount we feel to NAV. So part of it depends on how things go over the next little while. And of course, it depends on the inflows that BPE may continue to have in the market.

就未來機會而言，我認為這取決於兩件事。其一是有利於BBU及其股東，並推高股價。顯然，自從我們做了第一次之後，今天的股價已經好多了，但我們仍然覺得它相對於淨資產值存在相當大的折讓。所以，部分原因取決於接下來一段時間事態的發展。當然，這也取決於BPE在市場上可能繼續獲得的資金流入。

But if that natural opportunity exists in the future, we could explore opportunities. I would say it's not something that we're actively advancing at this moment, but it's an option that we always have in the future if it makes sense for both sets of investors.

但如果未來出現這樣的自然機遇，我們可以探索各種機會。我認為目前我們並沒有積極推進此事，但如果對雙方投資者都有利，這始終是我們未來可以考慮的選項。

Okay, and then if I can sneak one more in just on CDK here, results dip year over year. I know part of that was due to some ongoing strategic investments made and product enhancements. Just wondering if you can provide a bit more details on these initiatives. Maybe quantify the impact in the quarter and also future spend in the next 12 to 18 months?

好的，如果我還能在 CDK 這裡再補充一點，那就是結果逐年下降。我知道部分原因是由於持續進行的策略性投資和產品改進。我想請問您能否提供更多關於這些舉措的細節？或許可以量化本季的影響，以及未來 12 至 18 個月的支出影響？

So it's Adrian here. Current quarter reflects continued investment, as you said, in modernizing the technology. I think it's important to step back first. Margins are ahead of where we bought the business, and we continue to see the benefits of the operations and improvement that we've done across the business.

我是艾德里安。正如您所說，本季度反映了我們在技術現代化方面持續的投資。我認為首先退後一步很重要。利潤率高於我們收購這家公司時的水平，我們持續看到我們在整個業務範圍內進行的營運和改進所帶來的益處。

Churn is stabilized, and we've started to roll out some of the new features and products that we've been investing in. And customer response has been overwhelmingly positive. We will continue to invest and it's something that we'd always planned to do. We think now is the right time, but we're expecting to see the benefits come through next year.

用戶流失率已經穩定，我們已經開始推出一些我們一直在投資的新功能和產品。顧客的回饋也絕大多數是正面的。我們將繼續投資，這也是我們一直以來的計畫。我們認為現在是合適的時機，但我們預計明年才能看到成效。

And are you able to quantify the amount in the quarter?

您能否量化一下本季的金額？

I don't think, Gary, it's just -- I don't think we've broken that out specifically to say what the contributions are from each piece. But I'd say the bulk of the decrease that you're seeing is related to the technology spend. There's positive commercial actions. There's some churn, but the bulk of the year-over-year decrease is related to the technology spend.

加里，我不認為──我不認為我們已經具體分析過每部分內容的貢獻是什麼。但我認為，你看到的下降主要與技術支出有關。有一些積極的商業舉措。雖然存在一些人員流動，但同比下降的大部分與技術支出有關。

Jaeme Gloyn, National Bank.

Jaeme Gloyn，國家銀行。

Yeah, first one, just I might have missed it. Did the tax credits, have you received cash for that at this stage yet?

是的，第一個，可能是我錯過了。稅收抵免方面，目前是否已收到現金補償？

Hi, Jaeme. It's Jaspreet. We have not, so we're still awaiting the -- we were told that it's being processed. I think with the government shutdown in the US now, we're expecting that there's delays and slowdowns just in the processing. But our expectation is still that we will receive the credit and it's more just a matter of timing.

你好，Jaeme。是賈斯普雷特。我們還沒有收到，所以我們還在等待——我們被告知正在處理中。我認為，由於美國政府目前停擺，我們預計處理流程將會延誤和放緩。但我們仍然期望能夠獲得認可，這只是時間問題。

Okay. Understood. And then, I mean, pro forma liquidity is in probably the best it's been in some time. Should we expect a wrap-up here in deployments, or is that still somewhat contingent on recycling some of the other assets?

好的。明白了。而且，我的意思是，以形式計算的流動性可能處於一段時間以來的最佳狀態。我們是否可以預期部署工作即將完成，還是說這仍然在某種程度上取決於其他一些資​​產的回收？

Look, I'd say our capital allocation priorities are still around funding the growth of the business, maintaining leverages at a good level, so maintaining that; and then the $250 million buyback program. I'll let Anuj provide additional commentary, but the pipeline is very robust. We're opportunistic and selective in terms of where we want to deploy our capital.

我認為，我們的資本配置重點仍然是為業務成長提供資金，保持良好的槓桿水平，以及2.5億美元的股票回購計畫。我會請 Anuj 提供更多評論，但這條管道非常穩健。我們在投資方面採取機會主義和選擇性的做法。

So if we find the right opportunities, we have the liquidity available to fund growth. So far this year, we've deployed $525 million into three, what we think, are really great businesses. And if there are opportunities to continue to deploy capital, we'll do that.

因此，如果我們找到合適的機遇，我們就有足夠的流動資金來支持成長。今年到目前為止，我們已經向三家我們認為非常優秀的企業投入了 5.25 億美元。如果還有機會繼續投入資金，我們會這樣做。

Yeah. I'd just say that I think everything Jaspreet said is right. And I'd just say that generally speaking, the investment environment is looking very good right now. Obviously, financing markets are very strong and very enabling for private equity-style transactions.

是的。我只想說，我認為賈斯普雷特說的一切都是對的。總的來說，我認為目前的投資環境非常好。顯然，融資市場非常強勁，非常有利於私募股權式的交易。

But more importantly, we're just finding great businesses that we really like, many who we have been following for many years, that are possibly coming available at great prices. And some of those are deals that we've done so far this year that BBU has participated in.

但更重要的是，我們發現了一些我們非常喜歡的優秀企業，其中許多企業我們已經關注多年，它們現在可能以非常優惠的價格出售。其中一些是我們今年迄今為止達成的交易，BBU 也參與其中。

So the pipeline is very strong. There's some incredible opportunities that we're working on. It's -- I don't know if they'll go through or not, but if they did, I think BBU would look to participate in them. This is a great time to be putting money to work, and we're really excited about the overall landscape.

所以這條管道非常堅固。我們正在努力把握一些絕佳的機會。我不知道他們是否會成功，但如果成功了，我認為BBU會考慮參與其中。現在正是投資的好時機，我們對整體情況感到非常興奮。

Okay. Great. And then last one, just on DexKo. Volumes are up year-over-year. EBITDA looks like it's up a little double-digits. Has this turned the corner? Are you feeling more confident in your term outlook for DexKo? Maybe an update on that business and what we should expect in the coming year?

好的。偉大的。最後，只服用 DexKo。銷量較去年同期成長。EBITDA 看起來略有兩位數成長。情況有好轉嗎？您對 DexKo 的長期前景更有信心了嗎？或許可以更新一下那家公司的最新狀況，以及我們對來年的發展預期？

Yeah. So it's Adrian here. I'll give you some color. So look, we are pleased with the performance. The business continues to do well in what is an improving but still somewhat challenging market. Market demand remains below normal cycle levels, but we're seeing some signs of an early recovery in both North America and internationally. And we're hopeful that as we start to go through 2026, we'll see some further green shoots.

是的。我是艾德里安。我來補充一些細節給你。所以你看，我們對這個表現很滿意。儘管市場情況有所好轉，但仍存在一些挑戰，但該公司的業務仍然表現良好。市場需求仍低於正常週期水平，但我們看到北美和國際市場都出現了一些早期復甦的跡象。我們希望，進入 2026 年後，我們會看到更多復甦的跡象。

(Operator Instructions) Bart Dziarski, RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）Bart Dziarski，RBC Capital Markets。

Great. Thank you. Good morning. Just wanted to ask around AI, and you highlighted AI benefits across Clarios and [Sajan] at the Investor Day, and I was wondering if you could highlight some of the AI benefits you might be seeing across the other large investments, so I'm thinking CDK, DexKo, and Scientific Games?

偉大的。謝謝。早安.我只是想問一些關於人工智慧的問題，您在投資者日上重點介紹了 Clarios 和 [Sajan] 的人工智慧優勢，我想知道您是否可以重點介紹一下您在其他大型投資項目中看到的人工智慧優勢，例如 CDK、DexKo 和 Scientific Games？

Yeah. So look, Adrian, just some comments on CDK, Scientific Games, and DexKo. So we talked in the past about the benefits that we're seeing in Clarios. We've installed sensors across the business, started to measure and understand quantums of data to really help operationalize and improve the throughput of manufacturing and manage inventory levels.

是的。所以，Adrian，關於 CDK、Scientific Games 和 DexKo，我有一些看法。所以我們之前討論過我們在 Clarios 中看到的好處。我們已在整個業務範圍內安裝了感測器，開始測量和了解大量數據，以真正幫助實現營運化和提高製造吞吐量並管理庫存水準。

If you talk to CDK, I think the most important thing to talk about from a CDK standpoint is the data opportunity we have there to improve workflow. The volume going through the CDK platform, which is responsible for over 50% of dealerships in North America, the volume of transactions presents a really interesting insight and opportunity that we can start to build out the product proposition for our customers to benefit from that.

如果你和 CDK 談，我認為從 CDK 的角度來看，最重要的是談談我們擁有的數據機會，這可以改善工作流程。CDK 平台的交易量（佔北美經銷商總數的 50% 以上）為我們提供了一個非常有趣的洞察和機會，我們可以開始建立產品方案，讓我們的客戶從中受益。

If you think about Sci Games equally, the understanding of lottery behavior, purchasing patterns, and the like, is a tremendous opportunity for us to bring to bear to support licensees, the licensors, in monetizing and growing lotteries within their particular jurisdictions.

如果你同樣看待 Sci Games，那麼了解彩票行為、購買模式等等，對我們來說是一個巨大的機會，我們可以利用這些知識來支持被許可方（授權方）在其特定管轄範圍內實現彩票的盈利和發展。

And then if I talk to DexKo, it's similar to Clarios in terms of understanding sales patterns, managing inventory better, and really seeking to improve the operational performance of the business.

然後，如果我和 DexKo 交談，它與 Clarios 在了解銷售模式、更好地管理庫存以及真正尋求提高業務營運績效方面很相似。

Great. Thanks for that. And then a follow-up on the capital allocation. So the prior $2 billion of proceeds, about half of that was used to pay down debt, so $1 billion. And if I'm reading it right, it doesn't sound like this next $2 billion will be used primarily towards debt reduction. It's most likely capital deployment and buyback. Do I have that reading right or am I misunderstanding?

偉大的。謝謝。然後是對資本配置情況的後續後續。因此，先前獲得的 20 億美元收益中，大約一半用於償還債務，即 10 億美元。如果我理解沒錯的話，接下來的20億美元似乎不會主要用於償還債務。很可能是資本部署和回購。我的理解對嗎？還是我理解錯了？

Look, I'd say the corporate leverage is at a level that we feel quite comfortable. As we have monetization activity and we have proceeds, we'll pay down the line. But to the extent that there are great new investment and acquisition opportunities, we do feel like we've got sufficient liquidity today to participate in that growth.

我認為，目前的企業槓桿水準讓我們感到非常放心。隨著我們實現盈利活動並獲得收益，我們將在未來支付這筆款項。但是，如果出現新的投資和收購良機，我們認為我們目前的流動資金足以參與這種成長。

On the buyback side, we announced the $250 million buyback program earlier this year, and we've deployed about $160 million of that $250 million. So considering that our units and shares continue to trade at a discount, to our view, of intrinsic value, we will continue our buyback activity. So I'd say all of those facets are still in play and just given the -- it's hard to predict the timing of acquisition monetization activity, so the working capital lines, we'll continue to use them.

在股票回購方面，我們今年稍早宣布了 2.5 億美元的股票回購計劃，目前我們已經投入了其中的約 1.6 億美元。鑑於我們認為我們的股份和股票繼續以低於其內在價值的價格交易，我們將繼續進行回購活動。所以我認為所有這些方面仍然在發揮作用，只是考慮到——很難預測收購變現活動的時機，因此，我們將繼續使用營運資金信貸額度。

Thank you. And I'm currently shown no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Anuj Ranjan for closing remarks.

謝謝。目前我沒有看到其他問題。現在我謹將電話交還給阿努傑·蘭詹，請他作總結發言。

Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

感謝各位的參與。我們期待下個季度與您再次溝通。

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。