Brookfield Asset Management Q2 FFO Rises 23%

(RTTNews) - Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM, BAM_A.TO) on Friday reported a 23 percent increase in funds from operations for the second quarter from last year, reflecting higher asset management fees, realized disposition gains and the contribution from capital deployed.

Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management said, "We are continuing to see clients allocate an increasing portion of their capital to Brookfield's real asset investment strategies, due to the superior risk adjusted returns generated by these assets. Our flagship listed partnerships and private funds are well positioned to deliver long-term performance for clients and shareholders."

For the second quarter, the Canada-based asset management holding company's funds from operations or FFO increased to $569 million or $0.84 per share from $464 or $0.68 per share in the same quarter last year.

Realized disposition gains generated $147 million of FFO in the latest quarter, up from $58 million in the same quarter last year.

This includes a $68 million gain on the sale of a Denver office property and a $30 million gain on the repayment in full of a distressed debt investment in a European office portfolio.

Net income attributable to Brookfield shareholders for the quarter grew to $785 million or $1.19 per share from $230 million or $0.31 per share in the year-ago period.

The increase in net income reflects the higher share of fair value changes partially offset by higher income tax expense. In addition, the company's property operations benefited from the early repayment of an investment security and the contribution of capital deployed in the past twelve months.

However, revenues and other gains for the quarter declined 16 percent to $4.34 billion from $5.16 billion in the prior-year quarter.

The company noted that the sale and deconsolidation of a pulp and paper businesses within its private equity operations and non-core timberlands over the past twelve months reduced revenues and other gains for the quarter.

Fee revenues for the quarter grew 33 percent from the year-ago period to $702 million and fee bearing capital increased 16 percent to $84 billion, reflecting market price appreciation and issuance from flagship partnerships and continued demand for private fund capital.

The company added $1.6 billion of assets under management in its public markets asset management business, primarily through market appreciation and fund flows to property and infrastructure securities.

Total assets under management were $192 billion at the end of the quarter. The company announced or completed acquisitions and capital expansions that will deploy over $2 billion of capital on behalf of clients and its shareholders.

Further, the company's board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share, representing $0.64 per annum, payable on September 30, to shareholders of record as at the close of business on August 1.

The board also declared all of the regular monthly and quarterly dividends on its preferred shares.

BAM is trading at $44.49, down $0.05 or 0.11 percent on a volume of 26,485 shares.