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First step complete for $13bn Brookfield energy fund

Brookfield Asset Management has won note-holder approval to consolidate its Brookfield Renewable Power Fund with Brookfield Renewable Power. The merger will create a single, publicly traded energy and power vehicle. Unit-holder approval, up for a vote in November, is needed next.

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A bold energy asset consolidation intended to create a C$12.8 billion (€9.1 billion; $13 billion) pure play publicly traded vehicle cleared its first hurdle to completion at Brookfield Asset Management (BAM).

Brookfield counted a 99.95 percent note-holder, or bondholder, tally in favour of recombining its Brookfield Renewable Power Fund with its Brookfield Renewable Power business to culminate in Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (BREP).

Brookfield Renewable Power Fund is focused on North America, while Brookfield Renewable Power is centred on Brazil, Canada and the US.

Unit-holder approval, with a vote set for November 10, followed by a preferred shareholder vote on November 18, are required if Brookfield is to go ahead with its inception of BREP, a spokesman for BAM in Toronto explained.

BREP, which, when completed, would total C$12.8 billion, is a Brookfield brainchild envisaged as a renewable energy counterpart to its flagship offering, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP).

Like Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, BREP would be a publicly-traded partnership, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.

Essentially a restructuring of Brookfield Renewable Energy Fund, Brookfield Renewable Energy and the remaining Brookfield energy asset portfolio, BREP would offer “greater liquidity and access to capital,” according to Brookfield.

BREP would be 73 percent Brookfield-owned and 27 percent unit-holder-owned, in a “one-for-one” exchange. The spokesman said BREP, if approved in November, would go live in the fourth quarter.