Pedestrians walk past Brookfield Place in New York in May 2020.Frank Franklin II/The Associated Press
Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T has changed its head office to New York as part of a revamp of its corporate structure aimed at attracting a broader array of shareholders to own its stock, in part by joining more stock indexes.
Brookfield announced it has re-registered the head office of the asset manager in New York, confirming a plan floated with investors at a presentation in the city in early September. The company is also moving ahead with a share exchange that will make all of the asset manager’s shares publicly traded, but will not change the balance of ownership. The company’s corporate parent, Brookfield Corp., will still own 73 per cent of Brookfield Asset Management.
The changes to the corporate structure “will not result in any changes to the operations or strategic plans of BAM or BN and will have no effect on the tax treatment of their respective dividends,” Brookfield said in news release.
Brookfield executives have also previously confirmed that the company is keeping its Canadian incorporation and its listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which gives it a prominent place in Canadian stock indexes.
The Brookfield parent intends to exchange its stake of common shares for new Class A shares, while ensuring that Brookfield Corp. controls the asset manager as long as it owns a majority of the voting shares. Once all Brookfield Asset Management are publicly traded, its market capitalization would be roughly US$85-billion, making it easier – when combined with the re-registered New York headquarters – to qualify for U.S. stock indexes such as the Russell 2000 Index.
To be eligible to join the S&P 500 Index of larger-capitalization companies, Brookfield would need to make further changes that are not currently up for consideration.
The share exchange requires shareholder approval and Brookfield has called a special meeting on Dec. 20 to hold a vote.
