Brookfield Corp (BN) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Brookfield Corporation First Quarter 2024 Conference Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the conference call over to our first speaker, Ms. Angela Yulo, Vice President. Please go ahead.

您好，歡迎參加 Brookfield Corporation 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、副總裁 Angela Yulo 女士。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Welcome to Brookfield Corporation's First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. On the call today are Bruce Flatt, our Chief Executive Officer; Nick Goodman, President of Brookfield Corporation; and Sachin Shah, Chief Executive Officer of our Wealth Solutions business. Bruce will start off by giving a business update, followed by Nick, who will discuss our financial and operating results for the quarter. And finally, Sachin will provide an update and the outlook for our Wealth Solutions business. 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.

謝謝您，接線員，早安。歡迎參加 Brookfield Corporation 2024 年第一季電話會議。今天參加電話會議的是我們的執行長 Bruce Flatt；尼克‧古德曼，布魯克菲爾德公司總裁；以及我們財富解決方案業務執行長 Sachin Shah。布魯斯將首先介紹業務最新情況，然後尼克將討論我們本季的財務和營運業績。最後，薩欽將提供我們財富解決方案業務的最新情況和展望。在我們提出正式意見後，我們會將電話轉給接線生並回答分析師的問題。為了方便所有想提問的人，我們要求您不要提出超過 2 個問題。

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 are 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 the U.S., and the information available on our website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce.

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，包括適用的加拿大和美國法律含義內的前瞻性陳述。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聲明有重大差異。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。這樣，我就把電話轉給布魯斯。

Thank you, Angela, and welcome to everyone on the call. We generated strong financial results in the first quarter with distributable earnings before realizations of $1 billion for the quarter, and $4.3 billion for the last 12 months. This represented an increase compared to last year of 10%.

謝謝你，安吉拉，歡迎大家參加電話會議。我們在第一季取得了強勁的財務業績，本季實現的可分配收益為 10 億美元，過去 12 個月為 43 億美元。這與去年相比增加了 10%。

The outlook remains strong with each of our underlying businesses continuing to execute their respective business plans, driving organic earnings growth, supplemented by strategic acquisitions. Of note, our Wealth Solutions business reached a significant milestone through its recent acquisition of American Equity Life or AEL. Our Asset Management business announced an important investment in Castlelake further enhancing our asset-backed lending capabilities. And our operating businesses continued to deliver resilient earnings backed by strong demand for their high-quality assets.

我們的每項基礎業務都繼續執行各自的業務計劃，推動有機獲利成長，並輔以策略性收購，前景依然強勁。值得注意的是，我們的財富解決方案業務透過最近收購 American Equity Life 或 AEL 達到了一個重要的里程碑。我們的資產管理業務宣布對 Castlelake 進行重要投資，進一步增強我們的資產支援貸款能力。在對其優質資產的強勁需求的支持下，我們的營運業務持續提供有彈性的收益。

Sachin Shah, the CEO of our Wealth Solutions business is with us today, and will spend more time on the AEL transaction in his remarks.

我們財富解決方案業務的執行長 Sachin Shah 今天與我們在一起，並將在講話中花更多時間討論 AEL 交易。

Since the start of the year, we repurchased over $700 million of our shares at excellent prices. And we continue to allocate capital to share repurchases, enhancing the value of each of your remaining shares.

自今年年初以來，我們以優惠的價格回購了超過 7 億美元的股票。我們將繼續分配資本進行股票回購，從而提高您剩餘的每一股股票的價值。

Shifting briefly to the markets. The macro environment continues to normalize. With interest rates expected to have peaked and inflation beginning to cool. Liquidity has returned to capital markets. Most major economies in the world are performing better than anticipated, and risk appetite has come back to most markets. With conditions less restrictive, it appears that we are in a more stable and constructive market than in the past couple of years. With this backdrop, transaction volume is picking up, in particular, for high-quality businesses and assets of the type that we own.

短暫轉向市場。宏觀環境繼續正常化。預計利率已見頂，通膨開始降溫。資本市場已恢復流動性。全球多數主要經濟體的表現優於預期，大部分市場風險偏好回升。由於條件限制較少，我們似乎處於一個比過去幾年更穩定、更具建設性的市場。在此背景下，交易量正在增加，尤其是我們擁有的優質企業和資產類型。

This enabled us to advance a number of monetization initiatives, which Nick will touch on in his remarks. At the same time, though, we see -- we anticipate seeing investment opportunities from companies with balance sheets and capital structures that cannot withstand this more normalized rate environment. With a record $150 billion of capital to deploy, this should be an excellent period for us also to invest.

這使我們能夠推進一系列貨幣化舉措，尼克將在他的演講中談到這些舉措。但同時，我們預期資產負債表和資本結構無法承受這種更正常化的利率環境的公司將帶來投資機會。待部署的資本達到創紀錄的 1500 億美元，這對我們來說也應該是投資的絕佳時期。

Turning to the performance of our business today. Our advantage of scale, our global platform, and our operating capabilities, combined with the synergies across our Brookfield ecosystem, make our franchise stronger and more resilient than it has ever been. The compounding of all of these factors enables us to achieve strong and stable financial returns throughout market changes, and we've always found this as the safest way for long-term wealth.

轉向我們今天的業務表現。我們的規模優勢、全球平台和營運能力，再加上整個布魯克菲爾德生態系統​​的協同效應，使我們的特許經營權比以往任何時候都更強大、更有彈性。所有這些因素的結合使我們能夠在整個市場變化中獲得強勁而穩定的財務回報，並且我們始終認為這是獲得長期財富的最安全的方式。

In terms of generating and earning returns, we offer a few comments on the many ways to make a good return for stakeholders. As we own and build the backbone of the global economy, there generally are 3 main drivers of performance for private investors like us. The first is margin expansion and growing a business. In other words, earning more by running a business well. The second is multiple expansion. For instance, convincing some one of the long-term benefits and having built the business getting a higher multiple than you paid for an income stream. And lastly, adding more financial leverage, which amplifies returns by having the excess return earned on a smaller amount of equity.

在產生和賺取回報方面，我們對為利害關係人帶來良好回報的多種方法提供了一些評論。由於我們擁有並建立全球經濟的支柱，對於像我們這樣的私人投資者來說，業績通常有 3 個主要驅動因素。首先是利潤擴張和業務發展。換句話說，就是經營好企業，賺更多的錢。二是多元擴張。例如，說服某些長期利益並建立業務以獲得比您為收入流支付的更高的倍數。最後，增加更多的財務槓桿，透過較少的股本賺取超額回報來放大回報。

Most of the returns on our investments come from managing our businesses well and growing the underlying cash flows. In addition, we have found that the safest way to earn good returns is through finding businesses that continuously deploy capital in a more productive way, grow their operations and also operate in a cost disciplined fashion, therefore, expanding margins.

我們的投資回報大多來自於良好的業務管理和基礎現金流的成長。此外，我們發現，獲得良好回報的最安全方法是尋找能夠以更有效率的方式持續配置資本、發展業務並以嚴格控製成本的方式運作的企業，從而擴大利潤。

As the era of free money diminishes, running businesses better through operating capabilities is becoming increasingly relevant to differentiating reasonable returns from excellent returns. This drives our approach to continuously growing our operating teams and assisting our underlying businesses to be better and improve.

隨著自由資金時代的結束，透過營運能力更好地經營企業與區分合理回報和卓越回報變得越來越重要。這推動我們不斷發展營運團隊並協助我們的基礎業務變得更好和改進。

In summary, we continue to execute on our business plans and growth initiatives, differentiating ourselves through our significant amount of deployable capital, global scale and the deep operating expertise I just mentioned. As always, we remain focused on generating strong returns and compounding wealth over the long term for shareholders. Thank you, as always, for your continued support and interest in Brookfield. And with those comments, I'll turn the call over to Nick.

總而言之，我們繼續執行我們的業務計劃和成長計劃，透過我剛才提到的大量可部署資本、全球規模和深厚的營運專業知識使我們脫穎而出。一如既往，我們仍然專注於為股東創造豐厚的回報和長期的複合財富。一如既往，感謝您對布魯克菲爾德的持續支持和關注。有了這些評論，我會將電話轉給尼克。

Thank you, Bruce, and good morning, everyone. Results for the first quarter were strong as our businesses continue to generate stable and growing cash flows. Distributable earnings or DE before realizations were $1 billion or $0.63 per share for the quarter, and $4.3 billion or $2.70 per share over the last 12 months. And this represents an increase of 10% per share over the prior year after adjusting for the distribution of 25% of our manager in December 2022.

謝謝你，布魯斯，大家早安。由於我們的業務持續產生穩定且不斷成長的現金流，第一季的業績強勁。本季的可分配收益或變現前的 DE 為 10 億美元，即每股 0.63 美元，過去 12 個月為 43 億美元，即每股 2.70 美元。在對 2022 年 12 月管理人 25% 的分配進行調整後，這意味著每股比上一年增長了 10%。

Total DE was $1.2 billion or $0.77 per share for the quarter, and $4.9 billion or $3.07 per share over the last 12 months, with net income of $5.2 billion over the same period.

本季總 DE 為 12 億美元，即每股 0.77 美元，過去 12 個月為 49 億美元，即每股 3.07 美元，同期淨利為 52 億美元。

And starting with our operating performance, our Asset Management business generated distributable earnings of $621 million or $0.39 per share in the quarter, and $2.5 billion or $1.58 per share over the last 12 months. We continue to see strong demand for our private fund strategies with total inflows of $20 billion in the first quarter. Fee-bearing capital was $459 billion as of March 31, 6% higher than 12 months ago with fee-related earnings in line with the prior year quarter. We recently announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Castlelake, a premier asset-backed lender focused on aviation, specialty and real estate finance, broadening our presence in asset-backed lending. And we expect fundraising to build throughout the year, leading to strong growth in earnings.

從我們的經營業績開始，我們的資產管理業務在本季創造了6.21 億美元或每股0.39 美元的可分配收益，在過去12 個月內創造了25 億美元或每股1.58 美元的可分配收益。我們繼續看到對我們的私募基金策略的強勁需求，第一季總流入量為 200 億美元。截至 3 月 31 日，收費資本為 4,590 億美元，比 12 個月前成長 6%，收費相關收益與去年同期持平。我們最近宣布收購 Castlelake 的多數股權，Castlelake 是一家專注於航空、專業和房地產金融的一流資產支持貸款機構，擴大了我們在資產支持貸款領域的影響力。我們預計全年融資將持續增加，從而導致收益強勁成長。

Our Wealth Solutions business had a strong quarter, continuing to generate stable and growing long-dated annuity-like cash flows. Distributable operating earnings were $273 million or $0.17 per share in the quarter, and $868 million or $0.55 per share over the last 12 months. And the average cash yield on our capital today is 18%.

我們的財富解決方案業務季度表現強勁，持續產生穩定且不斷成長的長期年金現金流。本季可分配營業利潤為 2.73 億美元，即每股 0.17 美元；過去 12 個月的可分配營業利潤為 8.68 億美元，即每股 0.55 美元。目前我們資本的平均現金收益率為 18%。

As at the end of the quarter, the average cash yield on our investment portfolio was 5.7%, approximately 2% higher than the average cost of capital, which has a duration of 10 years on average.

截至本季末，我們投資組合的平均現金收益率為5.7%，比平均期限為10年的平均資本成本高出約2%。

Sachin will speak to our Wealth Solutions business in more detail. However, it is worth emphasizing that with the close of AEL in May, our annualized earnings are now approximately $1.4 billion, and we are on track to grow annual earnings to approximately $2 billion, driving significant cash flow growth at the corporation.

薩欽將更詳細地談論我們的財富解決方案業務。然而，值得強調的是，隨著 5 月份 AEL 收盤，我們的年化收益目前約為 14 億美元，我們預計將年收益增長至約 20 億美元，從而推動公司現金流大幅增長。

Through our combined wealth solutions platform, we continue to raise approximately $800 million a month from retail products for high net worth and mid-market clients. And we remain on track to reach over $1.5 billion of monthly retail flows in aggregate or close to $20 billion annually.

透過我們的綜合財富解決方案平台，我們繼續每月透過零售產品為高淨值和中端市場客戶籌集約 8 億美元。我們仍有望實現每月零售總額超過 15 億美元，或每年接近 200 億美元。

Our operating businesses continued to deliver stable cash flows, generating distributable earnings of $337 million or $0.21 per share in the quarter and $1.5 billion or $0.95 per share over the last 12 months. Cash distributions are supported by the resilient and high-quality earnings across our businesses.

我們的營運業務持續提供穩定的現金流，本季產生可分配收益 3.37 億美元，即每股 0.21 美元，過去 12 個月產生可分配收益 15 億美元，即每股 0.95 美元。現金分配得到了我們各業務富有彈性和高品質的利潤的支持。

In our real estate business, we continue to see the outperformance of our high-quality assets in an increasingly bifurcated market. Specifically, in our core portfolio, same-store net operating income grew by 5% over the last 12 months and occupancy levels remain at 96%. In the quarter, we signed over 7 million square feet of office and retail leases. Focusing on our office portfolio, leasing spreads increased by 14% in the quarter, and our leasing activity remains robust. A few examples of our leasing activity include 233,000 square foot lease in Toronto, 179,000 square feet in New York and 211 square feet between London and Berlin. In addition, a large office tenant recently announced that they'll be extending its long-term lease at Canary Wharf. And looking ahead, our office leasing pipeline remains strong at roughly 1 million square feet.

在我們的房地產業務中，我們繼續看到我們的優質資產在日益分化的市場中表現出色。具體來說，在我們的核心投資組合中，同店淨營業收入在過去 12 個月中成長了 5%，入住率維持在 96%。本季度，我們簽署了超過 700 萬平方英尺的辦公和零售租賃合約。重點關注我們的辦公室組合，本季租賃價差成長了 14%，我們的租賃活動依然強勁。我們的租賃活動包括多倫多 233,000 平方英尺的租賃、紐約 179,000 平方英尺的租賃以及倫敦和柏林之間的 211 平方英尺的租賃。此外，一家大型辦公室租戶最近宣布，他們將延長金絲雀碼頭的長期租約。展望未來，我們的辦公室租賃通路仍然強勁，約 100 萬平方英尺。

While in our retail portfolio, leasing activity continues to trend positively, with leasing spreads of 15%. Overall, we see many tailwinds for the earnings and valuations in our real estate business with core operating cash flows continuing to grow, interest rates and inflation peaking and expected to come down, financing spreads tightening and transaction activity picking up.

在我們的零售投資組合中，租賃活動持續呈現正面趨勢，租賃價差為 15%。整體而言，我們認為房地產業務的獲利和估值面臨許多有利因素，核心營運現金流持續成長，利率和通膨見頂並有望下降，融資利差收緊，交易活動回升。

In our renewable power and transition business, we continue to see robust demand for clean energy with accelerated global trend of digitalization. Subsequent to the quarter, we signed a landmark agreement with Microsoft to deliver over 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity between 2026 and 2030 through the development of projects in the U.S. and Europe to support Microsoft data center growth.

在我們的再生能源和轉型業務中，隨著全球數位趨勢的加速，我們繼續看到對清潔能源的強勁需求。本季之後，我們與微軟簽署了一項具有里程碑意義的協議，透過在美國和歐洲開發項目，在2026 年至2030 年間提供超過10.5 吉瓦的新可再生能源容量，以支持微軟資料中心的成長。

Now turning to monetizations. Across all our businesses, we are very active on a number of sales processes. With transaction volume picking up, we're seeing a flight to quality with buyers focused on the highest quality businesses and assets. We recently announced the sale of a 49% stake in a premier office asset in Dubai, generating an above-hurdle return. We're also progressing the sales of a hotel at our premier mixed-use complex in Seoul, Korea, a fiber platform in France and our road fuels operation in Europe. Most importantly, substantially all sales were completed or expected to be agreed at prices in line with our carrying values.

現在轉向貨幣化。在我們所有的業務中，我們在許多銷售流程中都非常活躍。隨著交易量的增加，我們看到買家開始轉向優質企業和資產。我們最近宣佈出售杜拜一處優質辦公資產 49% 的股份，產生了高於預期的回報。我們也正在推動韓國首爾首屈一指的綜合用途綜合體的飯店、法國的光纖平台以及歐洲道路燃料業務的銷售。最重要的是，幾乎所有銷售都已完成或預計將以符合我們帳面價值的價格達成協議。

In addition, we are advancing a significant pipeline of renewable asset sales, targeting $3 billion of proceeds in aggregate this year at attractive returns. Over the last 12 months, we recognized $547 million of net realized carried interest into income. We also generated $1.7 billion of unrealized carried interest, increasing our total accumulated unrealized carried interest to $10.1 billion, of which $9.1 billion is directly owned by the corporation. And with our asset sales pipeline active, we expect to realize additional carried interest into income through the remainder of the year.

此外，我們正在推進一系列重要的再生資產銷售，目標是今年的總收益達到 30 億美元，並獲得有吸引力的回報。在過去 12 個月中，我們將 5.47 億美元的已實現淨附帶利息確認為收入。我們也產生了 17 億美元的未實現附帶權益，使我們的累計未實現附帶權益總額增加到 101 億美元，其中 91 億美元由公司直接擁有。隨著我們的資產銷售管道活躍，我們預計在今年剩餘時間內將額外的附帶權益轉化為收入。

Shifting to our balance sheet and liquidity. We continue to maintain a conservatively capitalized balance sheet and high levels of liquidity. Today, we have a record $150 billion of deployable capital, enabling us to invest opportunistically and at scale.

轉向我們的資產負債表和流動性。我們繼續維持保守的資本化資產負債表和高流動性水準。如今，我們擁有創紀錄的 1500 億美元可動用資本，使我們能夠趁機進行大規模投資。

Liquidity coming back to the capital markets, we executed on approximately $40 billion of financings across the group over the last few months. Notable highlights would include, at the corporation, we issued $750 million of 30-year bonds to enhance liquidity. The offerings saw the highest demand for investors we've ever seen and speaks to the significant appetite for quality and duration in the market today. In addition, our corporate credit rating with (inaudible) S&P was reaffirmed to A3 and A- respectively. In our real estate business, we completed close to $15 billion of financings, including $4 billion in our office portfolio. As an example, we executed on $2 billion of debt at our premier mixed-use complex in Seoul, Korea.

流動性回到資本市場，過去幾個月我們在整個集團執行了約 400 億美元的融資。值得注意的亮點包括，我們在公司發行了 7.5 億美元的 30 年期債券，以增強流動性。這些產品對投資者的需求是我們所見過的最高的，這說明了當今市場對品質和持續時間的巨大需求。此外，我們的企業信用評等（聽不清楚）標準普爾分別重申為 A3 和 A-。在我們的房地產業務中，我們完成了近 150 億美元的融資，其中包括 40 億美元的辦公大樓投資組合融資。舉例來說，我們在韓國首爾的頂級綜合體中執行了 20 億美元的債務。

We've repriced approximately $12 billion of financings across 6 portfolio companies, extending duration and reducing spreads by 40 basis points on average. And lastly, our renewable power and transition and infrastructure businesses executed on key financings, including the issuance of $3.85 billion of investment-grade bonds as part of our partnership with Intel for their semiconductor facility in Arizona, with the issuance being heavily oversubscribed.

我們對 6 家投資組合公司的約 120 億美元融資進行了重新定價，延長了期限並將利差平均降低了 40 個基點。最後，我們的再生能源、轉型和基礎設施業務執行了關鍵融資，包括發行 38.5 億美元的投資級債券，作為我們與英特爾在亞利桑那州半導體工廠合作的一部分，此次發行獲得了嚴重超額認購。

These financings emphasize the continued demand from lenders for transition and digitalization opportunities.

這些融資強調了貸方對轉型和數位化機會的持續需求。

Moving on to capital allocation. We reinvested our excess corporate cash flow back into our businesses and returned $626 million to shareholders through (inaudible) dividends and share buybacks in the quarter. To date this year, we repurchased over $700 million of shares in the open market, adding approximately $0.50 per share of value to each remaining share. And we will continue to allocate capital for further share repurchases should prices remain attractive for us.

繼續進行資本配置。我們將多餘的企業現金流重新投資回我們的業務，並透過本季的（聽不清楚）股息和股票回購向股東返還 6.26 億美元。今年迄今為止，我們在公開市場回購了超過 7 億美元的股票，使剩餘每股價值增加了約 0.50 美元。如果價格對我們仍然有吸引力，我們將繼續分配資本以用於進一步的股票回購。

Overall, we have had an active start to the year, delivering strong financial results and executing well on our strategic plans. As we look ahead over the course of 2024 and beyond, we expect that the continued momentum in our financial performance, combined with our record level of deployable capital sets us up to grow earnings and enhance value even further.

總體而言，我們今年開局積極，取得了強勁的財務業績，並很好地執行了我們的策略計劃。展望 2024 年及以後，我們預期財務績效的持續成長勢頭，加上創紀錄的可配置資本水平，將使我們能夠進一步增加收益並提升價值。

With that, I'm pleased to confirm that our Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share payable at the end of June to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 13, 2024.

在此，我很高興地確認，我們的董事會已宣佈於 6 月底向 2024 年 6 月 13 日營業結束時登記在冊的股東派發每股 0.08 美元的季度股息。

I thank you for your time, and I'll now pass the call over to Sachin.

感謝您抽出時間，我現在將把電話轉給 Sachin。

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. With the recent close of the acquisition of AEL, we thought it was worthwhile to provide an update on our Wealth Solutions business and its outlook going forward. As many of you know, we launched Brookfield Reinsurance in late 2020 to focus on annuities and retirement income at a moment in time when historically low rates presented a unique opportunity to learn the business and potentially meaningfully benefit if rates gradually normalized to higher levels. Our strong capital position, decades of investment experience and deep operating capabilities positioned us well to build a scale business as demand for retirement income was on the rise.

謝謝你，尼克，大家早安。隨著最近完成對 AEL 的收購，我們認為有必要提供有關我們財富解決方案業務及其未來前景的最新資訊。正如你們許多人所知，我們在2020 年底推出了Brookfield Reinsurance，專注於年金和退休收入，當時處於歷史低點的利率提供了學習業務的獨特機會，如果利率逐漸正常化至更高水平，則可能會受益匪淺。我們強大的資本實力、數十年的投資經驗和深厚的營運能力使我們能夠在退休收入需求不斷增長的情況下建立規模化的業務。

As we set out to build the business, our focus, as always, was on compounding capital at 15% to 20% returns on equity over the long term while managing downside risk. Today, in the United States, there is a significant shortfall in retirement funding for aging populations to the tune of a $7 trillion deficit. There are approximately 60 million people in the U.S. who are 65 years or older, representing 1 out of every 6 people. 100 years ago, that number was 1 out of every 20 people. And over the next 2 decades, the U.S. will add another 25 million people to that aging cohort. Accordingly, as the population gets older in the Western world, the retirement deficit that exists today will only compound.

當我們著手建立業務時，我們一如既往的重點是將資本複利放在長期股本回報率 15% 至 20% 的基礎上，同時管理下行風險。如今，美國老齡化人口的退休資金嚴重短缺，赤字高達 7 兆美元。美國約有 6,000 萬人年齡在 65 歲或以上，佔每 6 人中就有 1 人。 100 年前，這個數字是每 20 人就有 1 人。未來 20 年，美國的老化族群將再增加 2,500 萬人。因此，隨著西方世界人口老化，目前存在的退休赤字只會加劇。

Furthermore, less than 50% of U.S. workers qualify for retirement benefits through their employer, putting significant pressure on government entitlements. As a result, the demand for private sector solutions that provides stable annuity-like income for an aging population are not only large today, but will grow well into the future. Accordingly, in 2023, record annuity sales surpassed $385 billion in the United States.

此外，只有不到 50% 的美國工人有資格透過雇主領取退休福利，這給政府的福利帶來了巨大壓力。因此，對為老齡化人口提供穩定的類似於年金的收入的私營部門解決方案的需求不僅在今天很大，而且在未來也會增長。因此，到 2023 年，美國年金銷售額將突破 3,850 億美元，創歷史新高。

Our business today is primarily focused on long-duration, fixed annuity and pension products, where we provide a fixed rate of return to individuals for a predictable number of years. These products help individuals plan for retirement, manage and protect their wealth and ensure they have a stable income source well into the future. These products also have a very stable and predictable profile for us, allowing us to focus on investment returns rather than insurance outcomes.

我們今天的業務主要集中在長期、固定年金和退休金產品，我們在可預測的年限內為個人提供固定的回報率。這些產品幫助個人規劃退休、管理和保護他們的財富，並確保他們在未來擁有穩定的收入來源。這些產品對我們來說也具有非常穩定和可預測的特點，使我們能夠專注於投資回報而不是保險結果。

As we have built out our business, we have maintained this core principle where our products are designed to provide long-term stable income to individuals and a predictable profile to us, which then allows us to utilize our investment capabilities to generate consistent excess spreads. The stable profile of individual income requirements and the long-dated nature of our investments ensures our earnings are highly predictable and very cash flow generative over a very long period of time.

在我們發展業務的過程中，我們一直堅持這一核心原則，即我們的產品旨在為個人提供長期穩定的收入，並為我們提供可預測的概況，從而使我們能夠利用我們的投資能力產生持續的超額利差。個人收入要求的穩定性和投資的長期性確保了我們的收入具有高度可預測性，並且在很長一段時間內能夠產生大量現金流。

In effect, we are leaning on the skills that have made us successful for decades, while generating stable and growing utility-like earnings similar to the earnings generated by our other Brookfield businesses.

實際上，我們依靠的是幾十年來使我們成功的技能，同時產生穩定且不斷增長的公用事業收益，類似於我們其他布魯克菲爾德業務產生的收益。

Three market differentiating capabilities unique to Brookfield continue to underpin our business. First, Brookfield Asset Management's leading investment franchise sees over $50 billion of credit opportunities across Brookfield's ecosystem annually. These investment products are ideally suited to insurance balance sheets due to their low volatility, capital efficiency and stable returns. And importantly, our Wealth Solutions business and the credit business within Brookfield Asset Management complement each other and should grow in tandem, driving earnings and cash flow generation.

布魯克菲爾德獨有的三種市場差異化能力繼續支撐著我們的業務。首先，布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司領先的投資業務每年在布魯克菲爾德生態系統​​中帶來超過 500 億美元的信貸機會。這些投資產品因其低波動性、資本效率和穩定回報而非常適合保險資產負債表。重要的是，我們的財富解決方案業務和布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司的信貸業務相輔相成，應該同步成長，推動獲利和現金流的產生。

Second, Brookfield Corporation has a $155 billion permanent capital balance sheet, underpinned by its long-term approach to invest in capital, earning attractive risk-adjusted returns with downside protection and not taking undue risk with capital. We have applied the same philosophy to growing our Wealth Solutions business.

其次，布魯克菲爾德公司擁有 1,550 億美元的永久資本資產負債表，其基礎是長期的資本投資方法，透過下行保護賺取有吸引力的風險調整回報，並且不承擔過度的資本風險。我們運用同樣的理念來發展我們的財富解決方案業務。

Our $8 billion of equity capital within Brookfield Reinsurance has been invested from Brookfield Corporation's balance sheet, providing 100% alignment with insurance policyholders, distribution partners and other stakeholders.

我們在 Brookfield Reinsurance 的 80 億美元股權資本是從 Brookfield Corporation 的資產負債表中投資的，與保險保單持有人、分銷合作夥伴和其他利益相關者實現 100% 的一致。

And third, our operational expertise. Historically, we have been successful across Brookfield when we manage operations to lower risk and drive growth. In this case, that approach led us to quickly being more than just a financial investor, and focused us on building out our own direct policy origination platform. The ability to get closer to customers, create new products, manage risk and align business initiatives to our long-term objectives supports our ability to deliver high-teens returns and compound capital over the long term.

第三，我們的營運專業知識。從歷史上看，當我們管理營運以降低風險並推動成長時，我們在布魯克菲爾德取得了成功。在這種情況下，這種方法使我們很快就不再只是一個金融投資者，而是專注於建立我們自己的直接政策發起平台。拉近與客戶的距離、創造新產品、管理風險以及根據我們的長期目標調整業務計劃的能力，支持我們長期提供高雙位數回報和複合資本的能力。

Our progress in building out the business took its first major step in 2022 through the acquisition of American National, a writer of premiums across life, annuity and property and casualty product lines. At the time of our acquisition, American National had never sold more than $1 billion of annuities in any year of its 100-year operating history. Following our acquisition, we focused the business through strategically exiting a number of noncore product lines, optimizing the investment portfolio and improving capital efficiency. In our first full year of operations, we sold over $6 billion of annuities out of American National. In 2024, we are targeting $11 billion of annuity and pension origination.

2022 年，我們收購了美國國民保險公司(American National)，該公司是一家涵蓋人壽、年金、財產和意外險產品線的保費承銷商，我們在業務建設方面取得了重大進展，邁出了第一步。在我們收購時，美國國民公司在 100 年的經營歷史中從未出售超過 10 億美元的年金。收購後，我們透過策略性退出一些非核心產品線、優化投資組合、提高資本效率來聚焦業務。在我們營運的第一個全年中，我們從美國國民出售了超過 60 億美元的年金。到 2024 年，我們的目標是年金和退休金發放達到 110 億美元。

Today, our investment is realizing over 20% returns on invested equity and our growth prospects are tremendous.

如今，我們的投資實現了超過 20% 的投資股本回報率，我們的成長前景是巨大的。

To further scale and diversify our capabilities, we recently completed the acquisition of American Equity Life. Although we only closed last week, we have hit the ground running to integrate the business seamlessly into our broader operations. We have improved AEL's credit rating given our financial strength, and we are positioned to record the highest annuity sales in the company's history over the next 12 months.

為了進一步擴大我們的能力並使其多元化，我們最近完成了對 American Equity Life 的收購。儘管我們上週才關閉，但我們已經開始著手將業務無縫地整合到我們更廣泛的業務中。鑑於我們的財務實力，我們提高了 AEL 的信用評級，我們預計在未來 12 個月內創下公司歷史上最高的年金銷售額。

With the acquisitions we have made over the last few years, and our organic growth, we have built the business into one of the leading providers of annuities and pensions in the U.S. We now have over $110 billion of diversified insurance assets and the capability to originate over $20 billion of annuity sales annually in the near term. Our business today generates approximately $1.4 billion of new annualized earnings on $8 billion of invested capital. As we optimize and reinvest the asset portfolio, we expect earnings to grow significantly from here as our portfolio today has over $25 billion of cash and shorter duration financial assets. And as we reinvest these assets over the next 18 to 24 months, the existing business is on track to surpass $2 billion of cash earnings annually.

透過過去幾年的收購和有機成長，我們已將業務打造成美國領先的年金和退休金提供者之一。銷售額將超過200 億美元。如今，我們的業務透過 80 億美元的投資資本創造了約 14 億美元的新年化收益。隨著我們優化資產組合併進行再投資，我們預計收益將大幅成長，因為我們目前的投資組合擁有超過 250 億美元的現金和期限較短的金融資產。隨著我們在未來 18 至 24 個月內對這些資產進行再投資，現有業務每年的現金收益預計將超過 20 億美元。

Applying a conservative multiple to these long-dated annuity like cash flows, we believe we have built a business and a franchise that is worth in excess of $20 billion.

對這些長期年金（如現金流）應用保守的倍數，我們相信我們已經建立了價值超過 200 億美元的業務和特許經營權。

Given our scaled operational capabilities and significant embedded growth, combined with our M&A capabilities, we see a credible path to once again doubling this business over the next 5 years as we continue to target 15% to 20% returns on our equity compounding over the long term.

鑑於我們規模化的營運能力和顯著的嵌入式成長，再加上我們的併購能力，我們看到了在未來5 年內使該業務再次翻番的可靠途徑，因為我們繼續將長期股權複利目標定為15 % 至20%學期。

With that, I will turn the call back over to the operator for questions.

這樣，我會將電話轉回給接線生詢問問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Mario Saric with Scotiabank.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自豐業銀行的 Mario Saric。

The first one is maybe for Nick, just on carried interest and utilization. Nick, on the last call, you talked about realized carry maybe being in the $400 million to $500 million range for '24, fairly consistent with '23. Q1 was off to a surprisingly solid start, just shy of $200 million with the language suggesting transaction markets should continue to improve. So I guess the question is, is $400 million to $500 million still a reasonable range? Or can we see BN exceed that level?

第一個可能是針對尼克的，只是關於附帶權益和利用率。尼克，在上次電話會議上，您談到 24 年的已實現套利可能在 4 億至 5 億美元範圍內，與 23 年相當一致。第一季的開局令人驚訝，接近 2 億美元，交易市場應繼續改善。所以我想問題是，4億到5億美元仍然是合理的範圍嗎？或者我們能看到國民陣線超過這個水準嗎？

Yes, I think it's still a reasonable range. We expected it to be a little bit front-loaded this year just given monetizations and where they're coming from and in which funds. So I would still work off that previous level we gave you.

是的，我認為這仍然是一個合理的範圍。考慮到貨幣化以及它們來自何處以及資金來源，我們預計今年它會有點提前。所以我仍然會繼續我們之前給你的水平。

Okay. And then my second question, just on real estate debt. I think you mentioned $15 billion of refinancing was highlighted. Can you talk about what you've seen in terms of spreads on both the unsecured and secured market quarter-over-quarter for the types of assets that you're looking to refinance as well as kind of lender appetite in terms of where LTVs are going?

好的。然後是我的第二個問題，關於房地產債務。我想你提到了 150 億美元的再融資。您能否談談您所看到的無擔保和擔保市場上季度與您希望再融資的資產類型的利差，以及貸方對 LTV 的興趣去？

Yes, sure. I would say, as a general comment, liquidity in the capital markets has been very strong to start the year. We highlighted a number of financings that we are continuing to execute very strong financings across the business every day. And I think when you're bringing high-quality assets to the market, the bid is very strong and especially when people are looking for duration -- backed by long duration cash flows.

是的，當然。我想說，作為一般性評論，今年年初資本市場的流動性一直非常強勁。我們強調了一些融資，我們每天都在整個業務中繼續執行非常強大的融資。我認為，當你將高品質資產推向市場時，出價非常強勁，尤其是當人們尋求久期（由長期現金流支持）時。

In real estate specifically, it's been a really strong start to the year, I think, in the market in the U.S. There's more CMBS issued already this year than in totality in last year. We've seen demand strong across the spectrum, retail very strong, multifamily, logistics and all those kind of assets industrial, and we're starting to see the bid improve for office as well. We've seen some office assets start to come into conduit. CMBS for the highest quality real estate, we're starting to see the liquidity and appreciation of the bifurcation of office and the demand for debt on high-quality real estate improve.

特別是在房地產領域，我認為美國市場今年的開局非常強勁。我們看到各個領域的需求都很強勁，零售業、多戶型、物流業和所有此類工業資產的需求都非常強勁，而且我們也開始看到辦公室的出價也有所提高。我們已經看到一些辦公資產開始投入使用。針對最高品質房地產的CMBS，我們開始看到辦公大樓分叉的流動性和升值以及優質房地產的債務需求改善。

So spreads have tightened, I see across the board. I'm not sure LTVs are drifting that much higher, but demand is definitely stronger across the capital stack, but the flow of demand for the AAA is driving down the spreads, and that helps the overall cost. So I would say, generally, we see spreads continue to tighten. But more importantly, we're seeing the demand debt being there, which is supporting refinancings and will start to support transaction volume in the U.S. Outside of the U.S., the markets are very strong. We did $2 billion financing in Korea, which is predominantly office, the $600 million office financing in Perth, Australia. So I would say that demand and depth of appetite for real estate across the spectrum, including office, continues to be very robust globally.

所以我認為利差已經收窄。我不確定生命週期價值是否會上升那麼多，但整個資本體系的需求肯定更強，而且對 AAA 的需求流正在壓低利差，這有助於整體成本的提高。所以我想說，總的來說，我們看到利差繼續收緊。但更重要的是，我們看到需求債務的存在，這正在支持再融資，並將開始支持美國的交易量。我們在韓國融資了 20 億美元，主要是辦公室，在澳洲珀斯融資了 6 億美元的辦公室。因此，我想說，全球範圍內對包括辦公室在內的各種房地產的需求和興趣仍然非常強勁。

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。

Part of the Brookfield game plan has been to monetize the noncore part of the real estate holdings, and the thought was this could be done over, say, like a 5- to 7-year period. Nick, you and Bruce called out this morning the improving conditions. You called it the monetizations that you're executing on. How do you see the monetization picture developing for what you'd previously called out as those noncore balance sheet investments versus how you're seeing the Brookfield funds monetize given the difference in the investment mix?

布魯克菲爾德戰略計劃的一部分是將房地產持有的非核心部分貨幣化，並認為這可以在 5 到 7 年的時間內完成。尼克，你和布魯斯今天早上表示情況正在改善。您將其稱為您正在執行的貨幣化。鑑於投資組合的差異，您如何看待您之前所說的非核心資產負債表投資的貨幣化前景，以及您對布魯克菲爾德基金貨幣化的看法？

And I guess the follow-up would be, is AEL going to be a factor in terms of the monetization picture going forward?

我猜接下來的問題是，AEL 會成為未來貨幣化前景的因素嗎？

Yes. So let me address the different parts of that, Ken, and maybe I'll start with insurance first. I think we've identified that the core real estate that we own, the top 35 office and retail assets that we want to own all of a portion of a very long time, which are truly some of the best real estate in the world with long-duration cash flows, high-quality assets. Those are perfect assets for insurance companies to look to own. So as we think about the long-term ownership of the core, I wouldn't just say AEL, but the broad wealth solutions and insurance platform will play a part in that, and we expect to make progress on that in the next 12 months.

是的。因此，肯，讓我談談其中的不同部分，也許我會先從保險開始。我認為我們已經確定了我們擁有的核心房地產，即我們希望在很長一段時間內擁有的全部前 35 名辦公和零售資產，這些資產確實是世界上最好的房地產之一，長期現金流、優質資產。這些都是保險公司想要擁有的完美資產。因此，當我們考慮核心的長期所有權時，我不僅會說 AEL，而是廣泛的財富解決方案和保險平台將在其中發揮作用，我們預計在未來 12 個月內將在這方面取得進展。

As it speaks to monetizations, yes, liquidity and transactions has started to pick up. We sold an office building in Brazil. So it's not specifically assets outside of office, but we're seeing capital markets improve, liquidity improve and that supports transactions. So our plan on T&D hasn't changed. Office in the U.S. maybe has a little bit more time to go before transaction activity really picks up, and that will be supported by the improved liquidity in the capital markets, but our outlook for that hasn't changed and our strategy is the same.

當談到貨幣化時，是的，流動性和交易已經開始回升。我們出售了巴西的一棟辦公大樓。因此，這並不是特定的辦公室外資產，而是我們看到資本市場的改善、流動性的改善以及對交易的支持。所以我們的 T&D 計劃沒有改變。在交易活動真正回升之前，美國辦事處可能還有一點時間，這將得到資本市場流動性改善的支持，但我們對此的前景沒有改變，我們的策略是相同的。

Our next question comes from the line of Cherilyn Radbourne with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cherilyn Radbourne 和 TD Cowen 的對話。

I wanted to start with a question on Wealth Solutions, so probably for you, Sachin. In the letter, you mentioned further growth through pension risk transfer and international expansion. So I was hoping you could touch on the current environment for pension risk transfer deals and comment on some of the complexities and opportunities associated with international expansion?

我想從一個關於財富解決方案的問題開始，所以可能是針對你的，薩欽。您在信中提到透過退休金風險轉移和國際擴張實現進一步成長。因此，我希望您能談談當前退休金風險轉移交易的環境，並對與國際擴張相關的一些複雜性和機會發表評論？

Sure, no problem. So the pension markets both in the U.S. and the U.K. are very strong. The U.K. has been at it now probably for about 6 or 7 years, where every year, you get a very large set of pensions coming off corporation balance sheets into private hands. And as a result, we've seen very meaningful growth in some of the pension aggregators in the U.K. But there's still probably 20 years and close to $1 trillion of pensions that have to come off corporation balance sheets in the U.K. alone over the next 2-decade period. So we see tremendous growth there, and it's a market where we think, given our asset origination and what's called matching adjustment in the U.K., we could be highly successful.

好沒問題。因此，美國和英國的退休金市場都非常強勁。英國這樣做可能已經有六、七年了，每年都有大量退休金從公司資產負債表轉移到私人手中。因此，我們看到英國的一些退休金聚合商實現了非常有意義的成長。 -十年期。因此，我們看到了那裡的巨大成長，我們認為，考慮到我們的資產來源和英國所謂的配對調整，我們可以在這個市場取得巨大成功。

The U.S. is much earlier in their transition from pension sitting on corporate balance sheets. And so I think we have not only a longer runway, but given the scale of U.S. companies, even a larger volume of pensions that will come off.

美國在退休金從企業資產負債表上轉型的過程中要早得多。因此，我認為我們不僅有更長的跑道，而且考慮到美國公司的規模，甚至減少更多的退休金。

All that being said, we started building out our U.S. pension business last year. We, in the last 12 months, have done $3 billion of U.S. pensions in terms of transactions that we've won. And we're still just in the very early days. I think that's a business that can comfortably scale to $7 billion to $10 billion a year in the U.S. for us. And in the U.K., we're in the process of getting licensed. We should be in a position by the end of the year where we're actually bidding on transactions. And similar to our U.S. strategy, we'll start small and eventually migrate into the larger transactions.

話雖如此，我們去年開始建立我們的美國退休金業務。在過去 12 個月裡，我們已經完成了 30 億美元的美國退休金交易，贏得了這筆交易。我們仍處於早期階段。我認為我們在美國的業務每年可以輕鬆擴展到 70 億至 100 億美元。在英國，我們正在獲得許可。到今年年底，我們應該能夠真正競價交易。與我們的美國策略類似，我們將從小型交易開始，最終轉向更大的交易。

That's great color. And then just in terms of capital allocation during the quarter, we noticed that there was just over $450 million that was reinvested back into the operating businesses. Can you give us some color as to what that went towards?

那顏色真棒。然後就本季的資本配置而言，我們注意到有超過 4.5 億美元被重新投資回營運業務。您能給我們一些關於進展的資訊嗎？

Yes. For sure, Cherilyn. So that was, as you said, capital allocation, so taking the consolidated cash flow that we have, we used that to retire corporate bonds within BPY, which I think we've talked about in the past, deleveraging that corporate balance sheet as a capital allocation decision when we weigh up that against other things we can do. So that's where the cash went in the quarter.

是的。當然，切瑞琳。正如您所說，這就是資本配置，因此，利用我們擁有的綜合現金流，我們用它來償還BPY 內部的公司債券，我想我們過去已經討論過這一點，將公司資產負債表去槓桿化，作為當我們權衡我們可以做的其他事情時，我們會做出資本分配決定。這就是本季現金的去向。

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。

Discount to NAV remains wide, but it has narrowed meaningfully in the past couple of quarters. And just given your outlook for capital deployment, how has that changed your appetite for share buybacks given where the discount is today?

資產淨值折價仍較大，但在過去幾季已大幅收窄。考慮到您對資本部署的展望，考慮到今天的折扣，這如何改變了您對股票回購的興趣？

Geoff, I think it remains the same. We have complete conviction not only in the intrinsic value of the business. But if you listen to all the remarks today, the growth potential and the tailwinds that we have across the franchise, we still see tremendous growth from here to date. So we still see buybacks being a very attractive use of our capital, we weigh that up against other opportunities that we have, and we have lots of strategic initiatives going on in the organization, a couple executed recently, which are all highly additive to the franchise, but they're just as attractive now as they've been over the last few months.

傑夫，我認為情況還是一樣。我們不僅對企業的內在價值充滿信心。但如果你聽了今天的所有言論，以及我們整個特許經營權的成長潛力和順風，我們仍然看到迄今為止的巨大成長。因此，我們仍然認為回購是我們資本的一種非常有吸引力的用途，我們將其與我們擁有的其他機會進行權衡，並且我們組織中正在進行許多戰略舉措，最近執行了一些戰略舉措，這些舉措都對我們的資本有很大的補充。

Okay. And just my second question, maybe expanding on Ken's question on the T&D monetization. I mean, if we're looking at over the next 5 years, if we've seen the monetization market, call it, opens up at some point this year, do you see that monetization of the T&D portfolio as you've got a, I don't know, call it, a material amount of the portfolio that could get monetized kind of call it out of the gate? Or is it something that may be a little bit more back-end loaded thinking about that profile?

好的。這是我的第二個問題，也許是對 Ken 關於 T&D 貨幣化的問題的擴展。我的意思是，如果我們著眼於未來 5 年，如果我們看到了貨幣化市場，即所謂的，在今年某個時候開放，您是否會看到 T&D 投資組合的貨幣化，因為您已經有了，我不知道，可以稱之為投資組合中可以貨幣化的實質數量，或者說它是一開始就可以貨幣化的嗎？或者考慮到該設定檔可能需要更多後端載入？

Listen, Geoff, I think we'll just take it as the market comes, like to be clear, T&D still is good real estate. These are good assets. We're comfortable owning them. And when the transaction market improves, if transactions are at levels that are attractive, we'll look to monetize. We think over the next 5 years, that market will be there, but we're under no pressure to do this. And when you think about it in the context of the overall business of Brookfield, this is not a material driver to us achieving our strategic objectives. This is about rightsizing the business over time, and we'll do it when it makes sense. So that's how I summarize the approach.

聽著，傑夫，我想我們會隨著市場的到來採取行動，需要明確的是，T&D 仍然是很好的房地產。這些都是很好的資產。我們很樂意擁有它們。當交易市場改善時，如果交易達到有吸引力的水平，我們就會尋求貨幣化。我們認為在未來五年內，這個市場將會存在，但我們沒有壓力這樣做。當你在布魯克菲爾德的整體業務背景下考慮這一點時，你會發現這並不是我們實現策略目標的物質驅動力。這是關於隨著時間的推移調整業務規模，我們會在有意義的時候這樣做。這就是我總結該方法的方式。

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Ms. Angela Yulo for closing remarks.

謝謝。現在我想將電話轉回給 Angela Yulo 女士，讓其閉幕詞。

Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. And with that, we'll end the call.

謝謝大家今天加入我們。這樣，我們就結束通話了。

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。