Brookfield

SEOUL, Oct. 29 (UPI) — South Korea’s Mirae Asset Global Investments said Wednesday it would take legal action against North America’s Brookfield Asset Management unless Brookfield returns $140 million related to a collapsed property sale in Seoul.

Mirae Asset noted that it made the decision after Brookfield failed to comply with a Singapore International Arbitration Center ruling, which required the company to return that amount and associated costs to Mirae Asset by Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the arbitration center ruled in favor of Mirae Asset in a three-year dispute over the failed sale of the International Finance Center in western Seoul, a mixed-use complex composed of three office towers, a shopping mall and hotel.

“Until the arbitration award is fully enforced, Brookfield will bear full responsibility for the accumulation of daily interest and additional damages,” Mirae Asset said in a statement.

“Mirae Asset has completed preparations to initiate follow-up legal proceedings under international law and applicable regulations. The company intends to take all possible legal actions,” it added.

To ensure compliance with the arbitration ruling, Mirae Asset said it may seek provisional seizure of Brookfield assets in South Korea and overseas.

When contacted, Brookfield’s Korean unit declined to comment.

Brookfield, a multinational alternative asset manager, is based in New York after relocating from Toronto last year. It has more than $1 trillion in assets under management across infrastructure, renewable energy, real estate and credit businesses.

The firm entered the South Korean market in 2014 and operates assets worth about $12 billion in the country.

In 2022, Mirae Asset signed a memorandum of understanding with Brookfield to acquire the International Finance Center for $2.9 billion, depositing $140 million as part of the deal. But the transaction later unraveled after Mirae Asset could not receive approval for a related investment vehicle.

Mirae Asset subsequently demanded a full refund of its down payment, but Brookfield refused, arguing that Mirae Asset had not made best efforts to gain regulatory approval, thereby breaching the agreement.

This prompted Mirae Asset to file for arbitration in September 2022.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.52%) is up around 13% over the past year. The shares of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM 3.37%) have risen over 40%. Investors clearly see opportunity in the Canadian asset manager’s future. But have they priced in all the good news? Probably not, given the company’s huge growth goals. Here’s why Brookfield Asset Management could still be worth buying while it hovers around $60 a share.

What does Brookfield Asset Management do?

Brookfield Asset Management is an asset manager, taking money from others and investing it on their behalf. The company also manages its own money. The big story to watch is what Brookfield Asset Management calls fee-bearing capital, which is the money it handles for others. It charges management fees for doing this, and, thus, the amount of fee-bearing capital it has will have the biggest effect on the business’ revenues and earnings.

Image source: Getty Images.

Although Brookfield Asset Management’s history is rooted in infrastructure, with a global focus, today it handles money across five different investment categories. Renewable power, infrastructure, and real estate all stick closely to the company’s historical focus. But it has also reached out into private equity and credit, expanding its reach and growth opportunities. These businesses are all being positioned to take advantage of what management believes are key global themes: Digitization, decarbonization, and deglobalization.

Brookfield Asset Management operates in over 30 countries around the world. Thus, it has a wide reach as it looks for investment opportunities for itself and for its customers. Overall, Brookfield Asset Management has roughly $1 trillion in assets under management. Of that sum, roughly $550 billion is fee-bearing capital.

Where to from here for Brookfield Asset Management?

Brookfield Asset Management has been talking up its growth opportunity for a little while now. Given the price gain over the past year, it looks like investors are starting to listen. A big example of the growth opportunity came when the company raised its dividend per share 15% at the start of 2025. That is a very big dividend increase, but it’s just the foundation of the story.

Management has laid out its growth goal through the end of the decade. The plan is to increase the fee-bearing capital it handles in every one of its segments, with the total expected to double to around $1.1 trillion. That, in turn, will increase the company’s revenues and earnings. The expectation is that fee-bearing earnings will rise 17% a year, on average, between 2024 and 2029. That, in turn, will allow the company to continue increasing the dividend by 15% each year.

Basically, the dividend will roughly double in about five years’ time. If that’s the case, to just maintain the current 3% dividend yield would require the share price to double, too. This still looks like an interesting growth and income stock even after the rapid price increase this year. Consider that peer Blackstone (BX 4.17%) has a 2.6% yield, and BlackRock (BLK 2.03%) has a 1.9% yield. The yield comparison here suggests that Brookfield Asset Management’s valuation isn’t extreme and, in fact, it might still be discounted relative to its competitors.

Execution will be key, but it looks like there’s still room to run

Clearly, the future for Brookfield Asset Management depends a great deal on how well it executes its growth strategy. But that’s true of all companies. There’s no particular reason to doubt that management can pull it off, given the company’s over 100-year-long history in the asset management business. Buying the stock while it’s below $60 a share, despite the recent price advance, could be a good opportunity for investors with a dividend focus and for those with a growth focus.

Brookfield Asset Management (BAM -0.61%) manages over $1 trillion in assets, making it one of the largest alternative investment managers in the world. The company is growing briskly as more investors look to diversify into alternative assets.

The company’s robust growth potential makes it one of the best financial stocks you can buy today. Here’s a look at its impressive growth profile.

Image source: Getty Images.

Rapidly rising fee-based income

Of Brookfield’s $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM), about $563 billion currently generates fees. Over the past year, this fee-bearing capital produced $2.7 billion in fee-related earnings. Brookfield returns most of this income to shareholders through a dividend that currently yields close to 3%.

Brookfield sees strong growth ahead for its fee-bearing assets, earnings, and dividend payments through 2029. The company expects to more than double its fee-bearing capital to $1.1 trillion by the end of the decade by putting more of the capital it has already raised from investors to work and attracting new capital. Key growth drivers include rising investor demand for alternatives, new fund launches, and expanding into new capital sources, such as insurance companies and high-net-worth investors.

As Brookfield’s fee-bearing capital grows, the company expects it to drive 17% compound annual fee-related earnings-per-share growth through the decade. Distributable earnings per share are on track to rise even faster at 18% annually, helped by the realization of carried interest (its share of the profits from funds it manages above certain return thresholds). By 2029, Brookfield estimates it will generate $2 billion in carried interest alone.

With earnings rapidly rising, Brookfield expects to grow its dividend by more than 15% per year. This combination of rising earnings and dividends positions the company to deliver strong total returns over the next five years.