布鲁克菲尔德公司 (BN) 2026年第二季度业绩电话会：AI与保险业务扩张推动DE增长15%

核心要点

• 按每股收益计算，实现前可分配收益（DE）同比增长15%至14亿美元，即每股0.61美元。可分配收益总额达到15亿美元，即每股0.66美元。
• Brookfield本季度筹集了创纪录的770亿美元。带费资本增长19%至6720亿美元，推动管理费相关收益增长20%。
• 财富解决方案业务产生4.8亿美元的可分配收益（DE），同比增长23%。在新增Just Group的450亿美元资产后，保险资产超过1900亿美元。
• Brookfield在2026年上半年筹集了980亿美元，部署了1000亿美元，并完成了约400亿美元的资产出售。可部署资金达到创纪录的2100亿美元。
• 管理层将AI基础设施描述为一个处于早期阶段的广泛投资周期，涵盖数据中心、电力、房地产、基础设施和算力融资。Brookfield计划主要通过旗下的基金、共同投资者和上市发行人来资助大部分机遇，而不是主要依赖BN的资产负债表。
• 该公司于7月完成了对橡树资本（Oaktree）的收购，并就其资本结构简化方案获得了股东批准，将其保险和投资能力融为一体。

核心财务数据

业务与运营表现

资产管理与资本活动

Brookfield本季度在旗舰策略方面筹集了170亿美元，其中包括为其第七期私募股权基金筹集70亿美元，以及为其第六期基础设施基金筹集90亿美元。管理层表示，这两项策略均有望成为各自系列中规模最大的基金。

该公司在上半年完成了约400亿美元的资产出售。交易包括美国托管数据中心平台Cyxtera的首次公开募股（IPO），该项目产生了约12亿美元的收益，Brookfield保留了64%的权益。该公司还以7.5亿英镑出售了丘吉尔广场一号（One Churchill Place），并以6.5亿美元出售了Multiplex。

Brookfield本季度实现了1.21亿美元的净附带收益。管理层表示，较早期的基础设施基金和橡树资本（Oaktree）基金正在接近附带收益实现的拐点，不过在资本和优先回报返还后，附带收益在基金层面是以保守方式进行确认的。

财富解决方案

在Brookfield持有的首个季度中，Just Group贡献了约2900万美元的收益，代表初始净资产收益率（ROE）约为12%。Brookfield已退出早期直接面向消费者的项目，开始降低成本，并开始将自身资产生成能力引入Just的投资组合中。

管理层表示，Just的成本结构是竞标同一养老金业务的部分竞争对手的二至三倍。管理层预计通过降低成本，利差至少有50个基点的潜在提升空间，而投资组合轮换则提供了长期向近200个基点利差迈进的路径。

在美国，新的银行分销渠道季度年金销售额约为2亿美元。Brookfield目前通过独立营销组织销售近120亿至130亿美元。管理层预计未来几年通过银行渠道每年可额外增加100亿至120亿美元的销售额，这可能会将每年合并后的养老金和年金销售额从约250亿美元提升至350亿美元左右。

房地产与运营业务

Brookfield的超核心（super-core）和核心增益（core-plus）房地产投资组合在季度末的出租率超过95%。覆盖近100万平方英尺的零售租赁起租，租金比到期水平高出12%。

办公楼投资组合在全球范围内签署了450万平方英尺的租赁协议，平均净租金比到期租金高出19%。美国租赁面积总计130万平方英尺，租金高出25%；而加拿大租赁面积超过70万平方英尺，租金比到期水平高出70%以上。

AI基础设施与能源

管理层表示，AI基础设施需求正在发电、输电、土地、数据中心、融资和算力领域创造机遇。Brookfield重点指出了其与美国政府合作宣布的位于肯塔基州价值1000亿美元的AI园区项目。

该公司还根据一份谅解备忘录与英伟达在算力融资方面展开合作。管理层表示，正优先选择适合机构和零售客户策略的合同现金流、高质量交易对手和风险调整后收益。

西屋电气（Westinghouse）正处于14座反应堆建设的不同阶段。管理层表示对另外40座反应堆有明确前景，未来可能还有100座。美国能源部还宣布与Brookfield的公用事业合作伙伴共同提供175亿美元的融资承诺，用于长周期反应堆零部件制造。

管理层展望

• 在旗舰策略和补充策略势头的推动下，Brookfield预计将迎来又一个创纪录的募资年份。
• 财富解决方案业务继续以长期至少15%的回报率为目标，同时保持严谨的承保和风险管理。
• 管理层预计到本十年末，保险资产规模将有希望突破3000亿美元。
• 该公司预计，随着合作关系在2027年及以后日益成熟，银行和经纪交易商渠道将成为美国年金增长的重要来源。
• Brookfield预计大多数AI投资将通过客户资本、Brookfield Asset Management基金、机构共同投资和上市发行人进行融资。BN资产负债表的直接参与是可能的，但并非基准融资假设。
• 管理层预计，随着成熟的数据中心成为适合机构长期持有的稳定资产，资本循环利用将继续作为其AI基础设施策略的一部分。

风险与关注领域

管理层指出，地缘政治冲突、能源价格上涨和利率不确定性是近期市场波动的源头。电网限制也可能会制约新电力供应支持增长中的AI算力需求的迅速程度。

分析师对AI交易中潜在的循环性提出了质疑。Brookfield表示正通过合同保护、交易对手选择、多元化风险敞口和资本循环利用来管理这一风险。

在英国养老金风险转移市场中，Just Group正在收到参与更大规模方案竞标的邀请，但管理层表示，当前的定价往往导致回报率低于Brookfield的目标。该公司打算保持耐心，而不是在缺乏吸引力的回报下追求业务规模。

Brookfield将财产及意外险（P&C）定价市场描述为正在快速软化。管理层认为，由于巨灾风险敞口或激进的增长，某些平台在未来36个月内可能需要资金补充，这可能会创造收购或合作机会。

财富解决方案业务目前保持资产与负债的久期及现金流基本匹配。管理层表示，在市场不确定性居高不下之际，不会采取激进的利率持仓策略。

分析师问答亮点

• AI回报与资本循环：管理层认为数据中心、可再生能源、核电、基础设施和房地产领域存在极具吸引力的机会。管理层强调了严谨的承保，并计划将稳定运行的资产回收至长期机构持有结构中。
• Just Group改善计划：近期优先事项是消除不盈利的项目并降低运营成本。长期回报应受益于Brookfield发起的实物资产和投资组合轮换。
• AI融资风险：Brookfield正专注于合同现金流、强大的超大规模企业（Hyperscaler）、芯片提供商和承购商。管理层表示，其多元化的基础设施、能源和房地产平台限制了集中度风险。
• 保险并购：Brookfield预计软化的财产及意外险（P&C）周期将在未来三年内创造机会，而美国年金增长预计将主要由向银行和经纪交易商的有机扩张所推动。
• 附带收益：管理层预计在未来12至24个月内取得进展，主要由较早期的基础设施基金和橡树资本（Oaktree）基金领衔，但具体时机取决于基金层面的资本回收、优先回报以及较低的追回风险。
• 纳入指数：简化后的结构为Brookfield未来纳入美国相关指数提供了选择权。管理层提醒道，这一过程需要时间，且取决于规则的演变以及公司的业务布局。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

---

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Brookfield Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference call over to our first speaker, Ms. Katie Battaglia, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Katie Battaglia

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Welcome to Brookfield Corporation's Second Quarter 2026 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 on our Wealth Solutions business. After our formal comments, we will turn the call over to the operator and take analyst questions. In order to accommodate all those who want to ask questions, we request that you refrain from asking more than 2 questions. I would like to remind you that in today's comments, including in responding to questions and in discussing new initiatives in 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 laws.

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.

In addition, when we speak about our Wealth Solutions business or Brookfield Wealth Solutions, we are referring to Brookfield's investments in this business that supported the acquisition of its underlying operating subsidiaries.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Bruce.

Bruce Flatt

Thank you, Katie, and welcome to the call. Our business performed well in the second quarter and through the first half. Distributable earnings before realizations increased 15% year-over-year to $1.4 billion in the quarter and $5.7 billion for the last 12 months. In the first half of the year, we were active. We raised $98 billion of capital, deployed $100 billion into opportunities and monetized $40 billion of assets while a further $130 billion of assets were financed.

We advanced several important strategic initiatives. We expanded our insurance business with the acquisition of Just in the U.K. Our assets through that increased to $190 billion. Shareholders approved the simplification of our capital structure, bringing our insurance and investment capabilities together. This creates a stronger and more simpler Brookfield.

Last, we completed the acquisition of Oaktree. Combined, our credit business is now one of the most comprehensive globally. Turning briefly to the market environment. There is no shortage of noise in the markets today, geopolitical conflict, higher energy prices and uncertainty around interest rates. While these factors may influence markets in the near term, our focus remains on firmly building long-term value across the business. None of these factors in the short term will matter too much to our long-term business success. The market environment continues to though, be constructive. Economic resilience and functioning capital markets are supporting operating performance throughout the business and transaction activity.

While uncertainty around growth and inflation is increasing demand for high-quality heavy assets, with low obsolescence risk, precisely the type of assets and businesses which we own. At the same time, long-term investment themes shaping our opportunity set are accelerating. Digitalization, decarbonization and deglobalization, which we have been talking about for years, are now creating opportunities unlike anything we have ever seen. The opportunities are accelerating.

Across AI infrastructure, energy addition, supply chain reorganization and data sovereignty, the opportunities are larger, more multifaceted and more capital intensive. Participating in these investments requires a broad range of capabilities and our advantage sits with our ability to deliver integrated solutions at scale. We have invested decades deliberately building and strengthening the capabilities needed to pursue opportunities of this scale. Together, they have become one of the defining advantages of our business and position us to capitalize on these transformational investment opportunities in the years ahead.

For us, this starts with relationships. Many of the opportunities we pursue are not broadly marketed. They come to us through bilateral discussions and strategic partnerships due to our scale or because certainty of execution matters. We aim to be the first call because of the relationships we have built across industries, geographies and capital markets to originate differentiated opportunities and give our partners access to transactions they could not typically source or pursue directly. Our global presence helps us determine where the best opportunities exist at any point in time. With teams on the ground across markets and asset classes, we see where demand is building, where capital is moving and where risks are emerging. That perspective helps us focus on the best risk-adjusted opportunities.

Our operating expertise is then what allows us to execute. Many of today's most attractive opportunities span multiple disciplines, and we can bring together teams across Brookfield to deliver integrated solutions that address the full scope of the opportunity. Our ability to source and execute is driven by the capital we have available to deploy. Decades of strong investment performance have therefore, enabled us to build a diversified capital base that draws on public markets, institutions, private wealth, long-duration insurance and our own balance sheet. These 5 things make us quite unique. This allows us to match the right capital to each investment and continue deploying through cycles.

Nowhere is this more important of integrating these complementary capabilities more evident than in the rapid build-out of AI infrastructure. The build-out of AI infrastructure brings together the capabilities of our real estate, energy, infrastructure and credit businesses, each a leader in their field. At the same time, the rapid adoption of AI is driving tremendous demand for electricity. And while constraints across the grid are limiting how quickly new supply can come online, the result is a widening gap between insatiable power and compute demand with constrained supply.

Together, these trends are creating one of the most compelling investment opportunities we've seen in years and precisely the type of opportunities our scale enables us to pursue without taking undue risks. We are bringing together power generation, transmission, land entitlement skills, financing and long-term customer relationships to deliver solutions that few organizations can provide. Our recent $100 billion announcement to build one of the world's most advanced AI factories in Kentucky in partnership with the U.S. government illustrates this well. We were selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to repurpose a federally-owned industrial site and deliver a major world-class AI campus, drawing on our certainty of execution, our ability to bring together land, power, transmission and capital at scale. This is federal land that has DOE uses on it, and as a result, today needs few approvals to move forward.

Turning now to Westinghouse. This is another example of how these long-term trends are creating new opportunities. No business we own today is more directly positioned to benefit from the growing importance of energy addition and energy security than Westinghouse. Governments and companies increasingly want reliable, domestically available generation. Baseload nuclear due to its scale is really, really important. We are supporting the next wave of nuclear deployment.

Building on our strategic partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce announced last year, the U.S. Department of Energy recently announced a further $17.5 billion financing commitment to us alongside our utility partners to acquire long lead time items to advance the production of the reactors we're going to build. It will reduce the time periods dramatically. It will shorten development time lines and establish a repeatable model for large-scale nuclear construction. Westinghouse is in various stages of construction today on 14 reactors, has line of sight on another 40 and another 100 coming. This is part of a $6 trillion industry build-out where we hold a very dominant position.

Turning to our capital base. It's also continuing to evolve. One of the most significant developments today is the role of private markets and retirement savings. Most individual savers have had very little access to private assets with their savings invested largely in public stocks and bonds, even as the investment world has evolved over the last 20 years. Businesses today are staying private longer, meaning a growing share of the world's essential assets and value creation now sits outside the public markets.

As a result, retirement savers are increasingly missing out on a meaningful share of global value creation and only participate once meaningful value has already been created. Recent changes to U.S. federal policy are beginning to open the door to greater private market participation in retirement portfolios. Savers will soon have access to diversification, resilient cash flows, inflation-protected assets and all these types of investment products. This will become another important source of long-term duration capital for us, further growing and diversifying our capital base.

I will end by saying that we look forward to seeing all of you at our Investor Day on September 17 in Manhattan. Additional details are on our website. As always, thank you for your continued support and interest in Brookfield.

I'll now turn the call over to Nick.

Nicholas Goodman

Thank you, Bruce, and good morning, everyone. We delivered another quarter of strong financial results, supported by broad-based momentum across the business. Distributable earnings, or DE, before realizations were $1.4 billion or $0.61 per share for the quarter, representing an increase of 15% per share over the prior year quarter. Over the last 12 months, DE before realizations was $5.7 billion or $2.39 per share.

Total DE, including realizations was $1.5 billion or $0.66 per share for the quarter and $6.2 billion or $2.61 per share over the last 12 months. Starting with our operating performance. Our asset management business delivered another strong quarter, generating distributable earnings of $740 million or $0.31 per share in the quarter and $2.9 billion or $1.24 per share over the last 12 months.

Fundraising was a record $77 billion during the quarter, reflecting continued strong demand across our flagship and complementary strategies as well as growth. This included $17 billion raised across our flagship strategies, [ $7 billion ] for the 7 vintage of our private equity strategy and $9 billion for the sixth vintage of our infrastructure strategy. Both are progressing well and are on track to be the largest in their respective series.

Fee-bearing capital increased by 19% to $672 billion at quarter end, driving a 20% increase in fee-related earnings compared to the prior year quarter. With the momentum we have across the platform, we are on track for what should be another record fundraising year. In July, we completed the acquisition of Oaktree, bringing the organizations fully together, further enhancing the scale and breadth of our global platform and strengthening our ability to serve clients with a broader range of investment solutions.

Turning briefly to Wealth Solutions, which Sachin will cover in more detail in his remarks. The business generated distributable earnings of $480 million or $0.20 per share in the quarter, an increase of 23% compared to the prior year quarter and $1.8 billion or $0.75 per share over the last 12 months. Results were driven by strong organic inflows, growth in net investment income and the first full quarter contribution from Just Group. We originated $5 billion of annuity sales during the quarter.

Total insurance assets increased to over $190 billion, driven by positive net annuity flows and the closing of Just Group, which added $45 billion of insurance assets. Our North American business' investment performance remained strong. During the quarter, we deployed $5 billion into real asset investments, contributing to an average net investment income yield of 5.7%. Disciplined underwriting in our P&C business contributed to a 99% combined ratio, lowering our overall cost of funds, supporting a gross spread of 2.2% for the quarter, further contributing to strong results on our invested capital.

Turning to our operating businesses. They continue to generate resilient and stable cash flows with distributable earnings of $361 million or $0.15 per share in the quarter and $1.5 billion or $0.65 per share over the last 12 months. Underlying performance across our infrastructure, energy and private equity businesses remained strong, supported by long-term secular trends, increasing demand for their essential products and services. Our real estate business also continues to perform well. The operating fundamentals across our high-quality portfolio remain very strong. Our super core and core plus portfolios finished the quarter at over 95% occupancy, supported by continued tenant demand and very limited new supply.

In our retail portfolio, nearly 1 million square feet of leases commenced during the quarter at rents 12% higher than those expiring. In office, we signed 4.5 million square feet of leases globally with average net rents 19% above expiring levels. That is worth emphasizing. Net rents on the leases we signed during the quarter were 19% higher than those expiring, providing meaningful embedded cash flow growth as these tenants take occupancy. A few highlights include: in the U.S., we signed 1.3 million square feet of leases at rents 25% above expiring levels, including 2 leases totaling 673,000 square feet at One Liberty Plaza, a core plus asset at net rents 44% above expiring levels.

In Canada, we signed over 700,000 square feet at rents more than 70% above expiring levels, including a 433,000 square foot lease at Bay Adelaide Centre, a super core asset at rents more than doubling expiring levels. And our leasing pipeline remains strong with more than 2 million square feet under active discussion. This leasing activity continues to demonstrate the strength of demand for high-quality real estate and the advantage of owning the best assets in supply-constrained markets.

Turning to monetization. Transaction activity continued to build momentum through the first half of the year. We executed approximately $40 billion of asset sales year-to-date, returning capital to our investors and crystallizing attractive returns. A few notable examples include: in infrastructure, we completed the IPO of Cyxtera, our U.S. colocation data center platform, generating approximately $1.2 billion of proceeds at an attractive valuation.

We retain a 64% interest in the business, and we'll continue to participate in future value creation as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates. In real estate, we sold One Churchill Place, a premier office tower on our estate at Canary Wharf for GBP 750 million, further demonstrating the recovery of high-quality real estate. And in private equity, we completed the $650 million sale of Multiplex, our construction business. During the quarter, we realized $121 million of net carried interest into income and ended the quarter with $12.5 billion of accumulated unrealized carried interest.

Shifting now to capital allocation and liquidity. We continue to return capital to shareholders during the quarter through a combination of dividends and share repurchases totaling $270 million. We maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation. In addition to reinvesting in our existing businesses and completing the acquisition of Oaktree, we repurchased approximately $580 million of BN shares in the open market year-to-date at an average price of $42 per share, keeping us on pace with the repurchases of the last 2 years. Capital markets remain constructive. And year-to-date, we have completed $130 billion of financings across the franchise.

Notably, at the corporation, we issued CAD 750 million of 10- and 30-year notes the transaction was 4x oversubscribed, underscoring strong market demand and the strength of our credit profile. We continue to maintain a strong liquidity position and a conservatively capitalized balance sheet and with record deployable capital of $210 billion, we have substantial flexibility to invest at scale as attractive opportunities arise. Bringing it all together, we had a very strong and active second quarter.

Earnings grew 15% per share, fundraising reached record levels, transaction activity continued to build, and we completed several important strategic initiatives that will continue to support our growth. We entered the second half with strong momentum across each of our businesses and are very well positioned to continue growing earnings and compounding intrinsic value per share.

Before I hand over to Sachin, I want to briefly touch on the simplification transaction. Shareholders approved the transaction at our annual meeting on July 16, marking an important step in bringing our insurance and investment capabilities together in a simpler and stronger structure. Shareholders who are in nontaxable accounts or in all jurisdictions other than Canada and the U.K. do not need to do anything. You will receive new shares in your account once the transaction is complete.

For taxable Canadian and U.K. shareholders who wish to complete their share exchange on a tax-deferred basis, the election period is now open and additional information is available on our website for you to do this. With that, I am pleased to confirm that our Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per share payable at the end of September to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 14, 2026.

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

Sachin Shah

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. With the recent addition of the Just Group, we thought it would be useful to start with an update on the progress we are making in the U.K., then provide an update on our existing businesses and close with how we are thinking about the broader retirement markets.

As always, our objective is to compound capital at 15% plus returns over the long term while maintaining a disciplined approach to risk and generating stable, predictable earnings. Turning first to the Just Group. We are very pleased with the progress since closing the acquisition in April. Just is a high-quality retirement business with capabilities in both the pension risk transfer and retail annuity markets. It gives us meaningful scale in one of the largest and most developed retirement markets globally. It adds another important source of long-duration, predictable liabilities to our business.

Since closing, we have focused on several areas. First, we have sharpened the business around its core pension risk transfer and retail franchises. We exited the early-stage direct-to-consumer initiative and have been simplifying the organization around the areas where Just has an established track record and a real competitive advantage. We have also been working on reducing the cost base. There is more work to do, but the direction is clear. We want a simpler operating model, a more efficient cost structure and a business that can scale.

Second, on the investment side, we have started bringing Brookfield's origination capabilities into the portfolio with a strong investment pipeline for the remainder of the year that we expect to drive further growth into our investment yields, our spreads and the returns on the overall business.

Third, on the liability side, we have adopted the same discipline we apply across the broader Wealth Solutions business. And since closing, all new business has been underwritten based on our targets. From an earnings perspective, Just generated approximately $29 million of earnings in our first quarter of ownership, representing a going-in return on equity of approximately 12%. We think that is a solid starting point with many near-term and medium-term levers to grow the business from here. So taken together, we feel very good about where the business is today.

Just has a strong market position, a large opportunity ahead of it and a clear pathway to improving performance. Our focus from here is execution, keep the business simple, stay disciplined on capital and capture the opportunity in the U.K., which represents over $0.5 trillion of pensions coming to market over the next decade. Turning to our existing annuity platform. We continue to make good progress in expanding the business. On product development, we have continued to broaden our retail annuity offering. Through American National, we continue to launch new products designed to offer pension-like attributes to retirees.

On distribution, we've expanded through bank and broker-dealer channels with several new relationships launched this year and additional channels expected over the balance of the year and into 2027. These new bank channels contributed approximately $200 million of sales during the quarter, and we expect them to become a very meaningful source of growth as they scale. Importantly, despite a competitive market, our spreads remain above 200 basis points. This reflects the discipline we continue to apply in matching the liabilities we originate with attractive investment opportunities and allocating capital only where we can achieve our target returns.

Our U.S. property and casualty platform, Clearbrook, continues to make significant progress. We have derisked the liability profile and focused the business on profitable growth by exiting volatile lines, reducing catastrophe exposure and strengthening underwriting discipline. This has led to a stable and consistent underwriting income. As the P&C market sees pockets of softening, we believe there will be meaningful opportunities to continue scaling this platform, both organically and through M&A. Bringing it all together, demand for retirement products continues to grow as populations age and retirement savings shortfalls widen.

The U.S. fixed annuity market is expected to generate over $300 billion of sales in 2026, which would be the second best year on record, and we expect it will continue to grow in this interest rate environment. Across our key pension risk transfer markets in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, we see a large pipeline of potential transactions coming to market over the next decade as corporations continue to derisk pension plans and transfer them to insurance companies, which have the capital and expertise to more appropriately manage them.

With our now scaled platform across products, distribution channels and geographies, we are well positioned to allocate capital to the most attractive opportunities while maintaining discipline on the returns we earn. Very few platforms have the depth and capabilities we have to originate attractive capital and the investment franchise to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns over a long sustained period of time. We are excited about the future of the business and the returns it can provide to Brookfield shareholders for years to come, and we continue to see a pathway to more than $300 billion of insurance assets by the end of the decade. Thank you.

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

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from the line of Michael Cyprys with Morgan Stanley.

分析师问答

Michael Cyprys

Maybe just starting off with a bigger picture question on the AI side as you look across power, data centers, increasingly compute. Curious if you could speak to where you're seeing some of the most attractive risk-adjusted returns there as there's clearly a lot of capital coming into the space. And then maybe more strategically, how much of the opportunity for Brookfield is not just simply owning and developing these assets, but also recycling them into stabilized homes with longer -- lower cost of capital, longer duration pools over time.

Nicholas Goodman

Mike, it's Nick. So listen, you're spot on. We are very excited about the opportunity. We see it as being significant and broad-based, and that touches many different parts of our business being real estate, energy and infrastructure. And the numbers are big right now, but we are, in our view, in the very early stages of what is a very significant investment cycle around AI, digital infrastructure and the whole power build-out that is needed.

And one of the easiest ways to think about it is we are generally just scratching the surface right now of AI adoption and implementation into the world and into business. And so as that takes hold, the need and the scale and the earnings power that's going to be backing that is going to be very significant. And you say where are we most excited, Bruce touched on a couple of the opportunities, just recent examples across data center development opportunities, what we're seeing in our energy business across both renewable and nuclear, but it will be broader across infrastructure and real estate. So I think we see a lot of opportunity.

That being said, given our position in the market, our scale, our access to capital and operating expertise, that affords us the ability to be disciplined and patient. So we are focusing on the highest quality investment opportunities with the highest quality counterparties, looking at stable structures where we can earn attractive risk-adjusted returns. And your second point is right, once we have developed and built these data centers into what will be very stabilized high core assets, they're very attractive for institutional owners for the long term.

We have been recycling as late, as you know, in both Europe and North America, and we would expect to continue that to recycle capital to generate strong returns for our clients, but also to recycle capital to support the next build-out and the future build-out of these platforms. So we expect to see that as we move forward.

Michael Cyprys

And then can I ask a follow-up question? Or should I get back in queue?

Nicholas Goodman

You can ask the second.

Michael Cyprys

And then just on Wealth Solutions with Just Group coming into the numbers here in the quarter. I was hoping you could maybe speak to how you're thinking about some of the near-term versus medium-term levers to expand the $29 million of earnings contribution there, 12%, I think, ROE on that.

How do you expect that performance to ramp as you look out over the next 12 to 18 months versus where do you see that over more of the medium term?

Sachin Shah

Sure. First, on the short term, I alluded to it in my comments around focusing the business, exiting some areas of the business that I would say were more early-stage venture type initiatives, direct-to-consumer, other new lines of business that really just were not profitable. We've shut those down and we've exited them. So that in and of itself is a cost reduction exercise. To frame it, just cost structure is 2 to 3x what some of its competitors are as they bid for the same product.

And in this market, you have to be a low-cost operator so that you're competitive when you're bidding on pensions. So that's our first and foremost focus area. Then I'd say the real big opportunity is bringing in our investment capabilities through Brookfield Asset Management. We source the perfect assets for long-duration liabilities through our real estate capabilities, our infrastructure and our energy businesses. And if you think about pensions, they are different than annuities. there's no lapse risk in a pension.

So when you offer a pension to someone who's retired, you're paying them really until mortality. And to be able to back that with long-duration, very high-quality assets whose cash flows grow over time and who have a real return type profile behind them, it's a tremendous competitive advantage for us. So I think between those 2 things, that will allow us to get the returns up to similar to what you see in our U.S. business. And once you're there, you can capture new business because you can bid more competitively than others in the marketplace.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Bart Dziarski with RBC Capital Markets.

Bart Dziarski

I wanted to ask a follow-up on the AI. So you announced a partnership with NVIDIA to launch a compute financing platform, mobilizing about $500 billion of capital. So congrats on that. And recognizing it's early days, but it would just be great to get your early views on will this be made available to retail and institutional? Maybe a bit more detail on how you're underwriting the downside case and which asset classes could benefit from this partnership?

Nicholas Goodman

Thanks, Bart. So as you know, this is an MOU at this stage that we have signed with NVIDIA pooling together large pools of capital. I'd say generally, we're very excited about the opportunity. If we take a step back, as you know, compute is the critical part of the infra stack supporting AI.

Up until now, our business historically largely focused on new build development. But now we're focused on developing partnerships to finance the chips and accelerate growth with bespoke deals. And when you're building an AI factory, as you know, the GPUs can represent half of the required capital to complete the build. So finding efficient ways to finance the equipment is becoming increasingly important. We've been doing -- we've been working with NVIDIA closely for the last 18 to 24 months, a number of partnerships, a host of initiatives, including a recent transaction in Korea.

And we're building a real solid pipeline of investment opportunities, and the opportunity is very attractive and access to a large pipeline. And to your question on risk, it's an attractive risk profile. We maintain focus on contractual cash flows, counterparty quality and generating attractive risk-adjusted returns that are ideal for our institutional clients and retail clients as they look to invest alongside us into strategies, but that is part of the catalyst for starting the AI fund because these types of opportunities are ideal for that capital and the return that's looking for partnering with different parts of Brookfield.

Bart Dziarski

Great. Very helpful. And then on Brookfield Wealth Solutions. So Sachin, you talked about seeing meaningful opportunities for both organic and inorganic ways to scale the business, especially on P&C with the softening pricing cycle.

So could you just maybe talk through the latest view on the inorganic side? How are those conversations evolving? What you're seeing out there as you look to scale BWS further?

Sachin Shah

Sure. I touched on P&C in the prepared remarks. that market is softening pretty rapidly, both along property lines and casualty lines. And we're seeing that really across the board in particular, in the specialty markets.

I think what that will lead to over the next 36 months is there will be platforms that either need capital, in particular, if they have too much cat exposure or if they have extended themselves too far in terms of aggressively pursuing new business, and they'll need capital or there will be great businesses who are just unable to grow because they have to be super patient and being part of our overall apparatus of Brookfield could be very helpful to them, in particular, because we can drive the investment side of that business or those businesses.

So I just think the next 36 months in the P&C side will be very interesting. Some players will get caught out as markets soften. And for us, that could represent a meaningful opportunity to partner with somebody, bring capital, bring investment expertise and really then drive that business going forward. On the annuity and pension side, we are focused today on several things. One is much more organic growth, both in just in the U.K., which I discussed. But in the U.S., we have a leading franchise in the IMO market. We sell -- we're the strongest seller of retail annuities through IMOs, but we're not really advanced in the bank and broker-dealer market, which represents 60% of U.S. sales of annuities.

So our ability to get on to these platforms in this last 12 months and continue to get on to more platforms over the next 12 months just will open up new markets for us and scale our program to be able to sell more annuities to a wider audience. So we're making tremendous progress in that regard, but I'd say it's more of an organic growth story in the U.S.

Operator

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

Cherilyn Radbourne

As you know, concerns have been raised about circularity in the deals underpinning AI investment industry-wide. So I'd love to get your perspective on how much of that is perceived versus real and how Brookfield is staying disciplined with its counterparties and contract structures?

Nicholas Goodman

Cherilyn, it's Nick. I think when you look again at the cash flows being generated by these transactions and the scale and the potential of the earnings that will be realized over time as compute is increasingly adopted into business, we have conviction that working with the highest quality hyperscalers, offtakers, chip providers is an attractive risk profile for our business.

And I think that a lot of what is happening is integrated and there is a lot of synergies between the different counterparties working together. But we believe we can invest around this with the right risk controls. When we look at the relevance of the contracts we're signing, the revenue on an overall percentage of what we're doing, we have very diversified businesses. This is a strong driver of growth today, but we still have a broad infrastructure platform, a very broad energy platform and a very broad real estate platform.

So I think we believe that the risk is well managed. We've been very active in capital recycling, and we've been very focused on the highest quality counterparties in the highest quality projects with the right contractual protections. So I think we believe that we are not really stepping out from our historical focus on risk management and earning attractive returns while taking on moderate amounts of risk, but we can do it at scale here, which is what is the most exciting part.

Cherilyn Radbourne

That's really helpful context. And then maybe this is 1,000 feet. But as you grow the insurance business, which hedges interest rate sensitivity elsewhere in the business, how do you think about your interest rate exposure and how that evolves over time?

Sachin Shah

Cherilyn, I'd say there's 2 models out there. There's the passive model where you just match your assets and liabilities and you don't worry about rate risk to a certain degree, all you worry about it, but you get my point.

And then there's a more active model where you, from time to time, understand where you are in the rate cycle. We got into this business 5, 6 years ago because we were at historically low levels of rates, and we understood that. And we understood that, that was an asymmetric opportunity. At that time, we kept meaningful exposure to rising rates by shortening our asset book, lengthening our liability duration and really keeping that exposure for the benefit of Brookfield shareholders.

Today, I'd say we're much more careful. We're largely matched. Our asset and liability duration is almost entirely matched and cash flows are matched because we're at a point in the cycle where, as you heard from Bruce's opening remarks, there's just a lot of noise in the market, and there's some risk premium built into the rate curve. And therefore, we'll be patient. And once all of this, what I'd call short-term noise comes out, we can see a clear picture, and we'll continue to take views.

But for now, we're matched and we're not taking an aggressive position either way.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mario Saric with Scotiabank.

Mario Saric

I wanted to touch on your commentary on the importance of scale. You really highlighted on the call as well as in the shareholder letter in terms of the relevance of scale and providing integrated solutions to global relationships. So my question is more pertaining to the incremental benefits from incremental scale from here. Brookfield is already a large organization. Is it missing out on opportunities today because of your size?

And if so, what are the opportunities going forward for Brookfield to increase its big deal market share or become, as you mentioned in the first call, even more frequently?

Nicholas Goodman

Mario, it's Nick. Listen, I think having access to scale, which Bruce said, the scale matters, it's the capital, it's the operating expertise, it's the reliability as a counterparty because what matters most is delivery of these projects when we talk about AI.

So that is giving us access to those incremental projects. And I think that we are very well positioned now to grow with the market as one of the established partners for the build-out. I would say, though, that what that's not doing -- I didn't get all your -- I didn't hear all the question, but that's not eliminating the ability to do smaller transactions at the same time because we build platforms. We have large-scale platforms and those platforms are doing tuck-ins and small acquisitions to add incremental value every day.

So we're operating across the spectrum of deal transactions and all of that tuck-ins and operating platforms that we have all feed into the overall scale of the business and the ability to participate in the large build-out and the large transactions.

Mario Saric

Okay. And then maybe my follow-up just for Sachin. Coming back to the organic growth vis-a-vis the bank broker network expansion. I think you mentioned there was $200 million of sales this quarter.

Can you help frame for us where you believe that can move to once you're at your desired number of relationships, but what is kind of are we in and what is the potential upside?

Sachin Shah

The upside is that we start to see, I would say, half of our sales coming from the bank network and preservation of the sales that we have from the independent marketing organizations. So if you look at the U.S., where we're selling almost $12 billion to $13 billion through independent marketing organizations and little through the bank network, you can see us getting to an additional $10 billion to $12 billion just coming through banks over the next few years.

And that's very meaningful. That would take our current $25 billion a year between pensions and annuities up to $35 billion a year pretty comfortably. And so the opportunity is very meaningful. And for us, it just takes time to season those relationships and make sure that we're providing the necessary support to frontline agents who sell the product.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ken Worthington with JPMorgan.

Kenneth Worthington

Maybe first on carry. Connor on the Brookfield Asset Management call talked about the pull forward of carry for funds relevant for them, which should benefit you as well. To what extent are you also seeing the pull forward of carry in funds where carry is exclusive to BN? And if you are seeing it, what's sort of the magnitude of the pull forward that you're seeing?

Nicholas Goodman

Ken, it's Nick. I'd say at the BN level, our outlook is largely consistent with what we've talked about recently. We're focusing on the next 12, 24 months when we think about the inflection point of our carry. And in that, the material drivers, as you know, for BN are earlier vintage funds, the earlier vintage infrastructure funds, Oaktree funds being big drivers. And I'd say on both of those, we're making good progress.

And while the second infra fund is smaller than the third, obviously, is less impactful, but it's now worked its way through the preferred return and incremental sales from here will realize carry. The third infrastructure fund is not far behind. We have a number of monetizations coming out of Oaktree and the monetization pipeline is very strong. So we're bullish on the outlook, but it's largely consistentot with what we would have talked about recently.

I would note that there are some funds raised after the BAM spin where BAM is eligible for carry that are outperforming to Connor's comments, and they may realize carry ahead of schedule. But that -- I wouldn't say that's necessarily material to the short-term BN outlook.

Kenneth Worthington

Okay. Perfect. And then just maybe broadly on the outlook of the pension risk market in the U.K. To what extent did the announcement of the Just acquisition impact the new business pipeline? And where does that sort of pipeline for new business stand today maybe relative to prior to the announcement of the deal?

Sachin Shah

For sure, our entry through Just, our acquisition of Just has resulted in the company Just being invited to see and to bid on much more than they ever have. Just the fact that Brookfield is now behind them and that people understand we have the capital and the expertise, I would say for Just, who largely focused on very small pensions, they're now getting invited to all of the larger schemes that are coming to market. That's the good news.

I'd say where we're being very patient is pensions in that market today continue to be bid up to rates that drive a much lower return than we're comfortable with. And so we're being patient. Again, these businesses -- we are not in this market to just grow at all costs. We're being patient in terms of the returns. And so I would say for now, we're seeing pensions trade at values that we're just not comfortable with the returns, but that will ebb and flow. And the good news is we're being invited to all the large options. And when the time is right, the business will scale.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs.

Alexander Blostein

First, I would love to hit on the maybe interplay of the very large AI opportunity, as you described with the balance sheet management. And curious how you guys are thinking about allocating capital at the BN level and to what extent any of the kind of AI opportunity will require more of BN's capital being invested alongside of third-party capital or some other way?

Nicholas Goodman

Yes. I mean, Alex, first of all, I'd say that we highlighted our access to scale capital. And I'd say, as we think about the strategies today, it's largely being funded within the funds with co-invest from very large institutions around the world who have very large appetite for these kinds of transactions given how attractive they are and participating alongside our listed issuers.

So I'd say that's largely how we expect to fund. But as the opportunities become attractive, as you think about the integration of BN and BWS and the scale of capital that we will have available to us, we will have potentially the opportunity to participate alongside the funds. But that's not the base assumption that we have in the plan. This should be largely funded through our client business and through BAM.

Alexander Blostein

Okay. Got you. And then I had a couple of just more specific questions around BWS. So if possible, I would love to run through that. So Sachin, I heard your points around Just and the steps you guys will take to improve the spread. From what it looks like, I think, today on that $85 million, the spread is, I think, below 80 basis points. So just ripping out some of the operational costs as you described, what kind of magnitude of a benefit do you think the spread could get at just over the next kind of like 12 months because rotating the portfolio probably takes a little longer.

So that's kind of the first part. And then on the existing kind of core annuities business, I think the spread is also below 180. I think you mentioned that you guys see spreads above 200. So I'm just curious, is that on new business and that's kind of still the bogey as some of the old business runs off? I'm just trying to reconcile the reported sub 180 to the 200 number you mentioned.

Sachin Shah

Yes. I'll start with your second point first because I think that's a very important concept that I want to make sure people understand. The 180 is just the income spread. It excludes the fact that a large portion of our portfolio is invested in equities, both our funds that are equity-oriented and also public equities. which makes us very different than some of our competitors. We -- and therefore, so much of this business' value will be total return over time. If you just take the unrealized marks on our funds that are invested in equity-oriented strategies, that 180 spread goes to about 220 in the current quarter. And I think we provided some disclosure in that regard.

What I would say is in that -- as we grow our equity base and we start to see equity returns come in closer to the long-term total return of that underlying position, we would assume that spreads would actually go up. We're using the word spread, but the reality is it's more of a total return concept. And therefore, we've been able to continue to outperform the broader market where spreads are much tighter, closer to 100 to 110 basis points.

Moving to Just, I would say there's at least 50 basis points of opportunity to enhance spreads simply by taking costs out of the business. So that will take time. But from the 80, I could see us comfortably adding 50 on top of that. And then the asset rotation program and letting our asset strategy work through the system, and you can see a path to getting close to that 200 basis point spread in that market as well.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jaeme Gloyn with National Bank.

Jaeme Gloyn

A quick one just on the BBUC shift from BN to BWS. Can you just talk about the benefits to each of the companies of shifting a portion of that holding?

Nicholas Goodman

Jim, it's Nick. Yes, this is just -- as you know, we have lots of investments on the BN balance sheet that can be attractive for pools of capital within insurance. We have moved BBU shares across in the past, [ Bev ] shares, BIP shares and they've actually performed incredibly well for the insurance accounts. So this is just a continuation of -- we have almost a ready-made investment pipeline for insurance accounts that can be highly attractive. And at certain times, we may choose to move them over and let the policyholders benefit from the great returns.

Jaeme Gloyn

Okay. Great. And then in Bruce's letter, a couple of mentions of index inclusion. Do you feel like you've done enough at this stage? Or are there other strategies or initiatives you could take to achieve that outcome?

Nicholas Goodman

Well, the first thing I would say is that we've now given ourselves optionality that did not exist before. So under our current structure, we had 0 path to U.S. index inclusion. I would say now being in domicile of convenience and with the fact pattern around our business, we have the option.

And I think it will take time, but as rules emerge, as they evolve and our footprint of our business evolves, I think there are things that could be done over time to enhance it that we can do and that the rules as they evolve will accommodate our business. So I think we have the optionality today. It will take time, but it should be a significant positive as we move forward if we can materialize it.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Etienne Ricard with BMO Capital Markets.

Etienne Ricard

Just Group is the latest of the series of acquisitions you've made in Wealth Solutions. When you onboard a new insurance leadership team, how do you make sure the acquired assets meet Brookfield's risk tolerance and that returns are prioritized over volumes?

Sachin Shah

Look, I think the first thing for us is to make sure there's alignment throughout the system. So one, all of the capital that we provide and that goes into these insurance companies comes from Brookfield. So we have complete alignment with policyholders.

Number two, we incentivize management teams to also have that long-term alignment through LTIP programs that look and feel like Brookfield, where there's a long-term focus and the focus is on capital compounding. Number three, we spend time with management teams to make sure that the culture is strong and that the people who are leading these companies align with our culture, which is very value focused.

And I think if you do those things, I know it sounds soft, but if you do those things, then generally good things in the business will start to happen. And we've been fortunate that in all of the businesses that we've acquired, we've been able to execute those simple steps.

Etienne Ricard

In. And to follow up on carried interest. We've seen quite an increase in asset sales in recent years, while the carried interest realizations have not picked up as meaningfully.

So Nick, I'm wondering what are your expectations for asset sales over the next year? And why should it translate into better carry realization?

Nicholas Goodman

Etienne, you're right. The monetizations have been very strong, a testament to the quality of the assets that we own and the value creation plans that we've executed and the breadth of the diversification of the assets we own across asset class, geography, allowing us to execute many sales at the same time to different investor pools. So the monetization progress is good. But as you know, the way we realize carry is on a very conservative basis. And we realize that on a fund-by-fund basis, not investment by investment. And that just means it takes time. These are large funds.

We have to return all of the original capital to investors. We have to work our way through the preferred return. And when there is limited to no risk of clawback, we start to realize carry. And that's why we've talked about an inflection point because it takes about -- it takes time to compound that return to return the capital at scale and then to start realizing carry, and we're getting closer to that point, as I mentioned earlier, in our earlier vintage infrastructure funds and our Oaktree funds. And then it should be -- continue to scale as we then work through even larger funds as we move forward.

Operator

As there are no more questions, I will now turn the call back to Ms. Katie Battaglia for closing remarks.

Katie Battaglia

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

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.