(Bloomberg) —
Brookfield Asset Management Inc., one of the world’s largest investment firms, is expanding in London after scaling up its UK headcount in recent years and snapping up billions of dollars of assets, according to people familiar with the matter.
The firm has taken on additional space in its Canary Wharf office this year and is planning to add more in the coming months, the people said.
Toronto-based Brookfield co-owns the Canary Wharf Group with the Qatar Investment Authority. Overall, it manages about $60 billion in assets across the UK, including Center Parcs holiday venues and a stake in UK hydroelectric power firm First Hydro. Collectively, around 20,000 people are employed at its sites in the country.
Brookfield’s commitment to London will be a boost to the UK after a summer of political and economic turbulence. The move also underscores London’s status as a financial center six years after the UK voted to leave the European Union. Earlier this year, rival investment firm Blackstone Group Inc announced plans to expand in the UK and move to larger headquarters in London’s upmarket Mayfair district.
London Growth
Brookfield, which manages more than $750 billion, has increased headcount in London in recent years. Since 2018, the number of employees across its investing and property businesses rose from around 130 to more than 400, one of the people said. The firm did its first UK deal in 2003 when it bought a small stake in The Canary Wharf Group.
Brookfield is also expanding in continental Europe as it seeks to invest billions of dollars in private equity deals, real estate and infrastructure.
In June, Brookfield announced it had raised $15 billion for a global energy transition fund in an initiative spearheaded by former Bank of England chairman Mark Carney, who is now the firm’s vice chair. Brookfield already has agreements to invest about $2.5 billion from the fund, including in renewables projects in Germany and the UK.
The firm has grown its presence in Madrid this year and is planning to open an office in Frankfurt next year, the people said. Through July, Brookfield had invested $12 billion into European deals, a record for the firm, Bloomberg News previously reported.
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