Brookfield Corp at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So I wanted to start with a bit of a bigger picture question for you guys, really on the back of some of the targets you announced at the Investor Day a few months ago, which effectively calls for a doubling of the business. And you have lots going on. You're on your way there, 2025, was a strong start in terms of the fundraising targets that you laid out. But as you look out into 2026, talk to us about the fundraising environment and how you expect that year to shape up for Brookfield from a fundraising perspective.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. Let's spend a couple of minutes on some of the bigger initiatives you guys have coming up. Obviously, AI, all things AI, AI infrastructure has been incredibly topical for the space, but really for you guys as one of the leaders in the space. You've actually described AI infrastructure as a multitrillion dollar capital formation cycle. You've been executing against that opportunity well with obviously a number of partnerships. You're in the middle of raising your large AI infrastructure program as well. You talked about that space being $100 billion of assets to Brookfield at some point of time potentially. So what are the priorities into next year as you're building out this ecosystem, how the fundraising dialog is coming along as you're embarking on this kind of next leg of your journey?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. So just maybe double-clicking on that, given your exposure to this ecosystem and given all the headline concerns that we've seen, especially in a couple of months around the AI theme and potentially areas of overheating, how do you make sure you don't make some of those mistakes? So what areas you're avoiding and where are you leaning in?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. So back to your original point where there's really not enough capital in the world today to support it. There's certainly not enough government capital to really support this. So when you think about your initial leg into this theme, you have the big AI fund that you're fundraising today. What are the vehicles? What are the products? What are the strategies you think could evolve around that? And when I think about Brookfield's history of building businesses, transition business is in one of the examples, more recent examples. How big do you think the AI infrastructure business will be for you guys over the next several years?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Okay. Let's pivot away from AI for a minute. To your point earlier, Brookfield has a really diverse set of businesses across a number of different verticals. Where else are you finding interesting deployment opportunity? It feels like the pace of deployment has steadily been picking up. What else is interesting for you guys in terms of capital deployment over the next 12 to 18 months?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yes. The other side of that coin is obviously monetization activity. It's been a place where the industry has sort of struggled for the last couple of years. It's really nice to see finally turning the corner in 2025. It's certainly been -- it's been a better year for realizations for the space. It's been a better year for you guys as well. I think over $75 billion of sales year-to-date through Q3. It's really across the franchise. How should investors think about Brookfield's monetization outlook in 2026? And then within that, maybe talk a little bit about what are the segments or the product categories that are likely to be the biggest sellers?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : And the quantum, again, with the caveat that nobody has a crystal ball, but is the expectation '26 to be better than '25?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. All right. Let's pivot a little bit. I would love to spend some time on insurance and BWS, which is obviously part of Brookfield, the corporation, BN. It's been growing rapidly. You guys obviously established this platform as an investment-led insurance organization. It's really important to BN. It's really important to BAM. It's obviously very important to shareholders across probably both sides of that aisle. So when you think about 2026 and beyond, can you talk about what are some of the levers you're pulling on to sustain the growth, number one? And number two, and perhaps more importantly, to continue to deliver 15-plus percent type of ROEs?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Right. So given, I guess, how important the investment capabilities are going to be for BWS to sustain the sort of 15% ROE, maybe even grow it over time. Talk to us a little bit about how the asset side of the balance sheet could evolve versus where it is today? What runway you see for utilizing more of Brookfield's asset management capabilities on the BWS balance sheet?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Got you. Another one on insurance topic for you, Property and Casualty. So I know when we talk about BWS, mostly is the annuities business. It's mostly the business that's been quite aligned with alternative asset managers when we look at a lot of your peers that are kind of participating in the same. You do have a small P&C business. What sort of strategy behind P&C? Is that a -- is it an opportunity? Do you see space to grow organically or maybe even via M&A? And how does that play into the symbiotic relationship with the asset manager because that's quite a different type of risk and probably different asset management strategy as well.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Sure, sure. And if you don't find something like that inorganically, is there appetite to just write that kind of business organically and just kind of chug along and make it somewhat additive to the whole ecosystem?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Okay. Let's go back to Brookfield Asset Management discussion for a couple of minutes. I would love to get your thoughts on private credit. Obviously, it's been super topical for the last couple of months. It's your largest business. It accounts for about 1/3 of Brookfield's Asset Management management fees. Now a lot of the concerns in the market have really been surrounding direct lending and some of the more levered part of the ecosystem. You guys actually don't have a whole lot of exposure there. But when you kind of zoom out and when you think about the multi-asset credit platform that you've built, what are some of the more attractive areas to deploy capital, number one? And how do you think about that platform growing over the next few years?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Last time I checked, yes.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. All right. Another important area I wanted to make sure we talk about is real estate. Again, not a whole franchise, as you pointed out, you guys a diversified platform, but it's an important one. And it's important for both for a variety of reasons, right? It's important for BN on one end, and it's important for BAM on the other one. So over the last few quarters, you've been pointing out signs of recovery, both on the fundamental side of the picture, but also the capital markets healing and hopefully, the lower rate environment will make it easier to start to sort of transact in the real estate space as well. So as you look out into 2026, maybe talk to us a little bit about your plans for further monetizations out of the BN portfolio and sort of lessons learned so far in terms of the appetite for the assets that you're bringing in the market. And then on the fundraising side, at what point do you see healthier transaction activity translate into a more favorable fundraising outlook for real estate strategies?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Perfect. Well, I think we'll leave it there. Bruce, thank you very much for joining us again this year. See you next year, hopefully, as well.