Brookfield Asset Management raised US$26 billion in the third quarter and said it’s on track to bring in close to $150 billion in fresh capital this year, despite a tough fundraising environment. 

“2023 is shaping up to be an excellent year for capital raising, which sets the stage next year for excellent earnings and dividend growth,” President Connor Teskey said in a statement Monday. About $11 billion came into the funds of Oaktree Capital. 

The Toronto-based alternative asset manager posted distributable earnings of $568 million in the quarter, up eight per cent from the prior year, according to the statement. 

Fee-bearing capital, a measure of the amount from which the firm is entitled to earn fee revenue, was $440 billion at the end of September, the same as three months earlier. It has a goal of getting to $1 trillion by 2028. 

The firm, which handles about $850 billion of assets including those of its parent, Brookfield Corp., has been one of the world’s most active investment firms this year, even as many of its peers have remained on the sidelines in a quiet spell for mergers and acquisitions. 

Brookfield has raised $61 billion since the beginning of the year, Teskey said, giving it $102 billion of dry powder available to deploy. 

During the quarter, Brookfield closed its third infrastructure debt fund at more than $6 billion; it also expects the size of its latest flagship infrastructure fund to exceed $27 billion. The Canadian firm also held a final close for its sixth flagship private equity fund at $12 billion. 

Its most recent deals include an agreement to buy most of the assets of bankrupt data center firm Cyxtera Technologies Inc. for $775 million and Dubai-based credit card processor Network International Holdings Plc for about £2.2 billion (US$2.7 billion). 

But Brookfield’s efforts to buy Origin Energy Ltd. hit a snag after top shareholder AustralianSuper rejected the offer. 

Brookfield expects a busy period of deal activity as markets regain confidence and liquidity starts to return, according to a letter to shareholders from Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt and Teskey. Interest rates are “peaking, and this is good for transaction activity,” they said. 

“Economic activity has been resilient and labor markets have remained tight, particularly in the United States,” Flatt and Teskey wrote. 

The firm’s $150 billion target for 2023 fundraising includes money it expects to manage for American Equity Investment Life Holding Co., which Brookfield Reinsurance is in the process of acquiring.