By Robb M. Stewart

Brookfield logged a jump in its core measure of earnings in the first quarter of the year as the investment firm's asset management and wealth operations each notched growth.

Distributable earnings, a measure of cash that can be returned to shareholders, rose to $1.55 billion, or 98 cents a share, for the three months from $1.22 billion, or 77 cents, a year earlier.

Consolidated income, however, fell to $215 million from $519 million. And earnings per share halved to 2 cents from 4 cents in the same period last year.

Revenue dropped 28% to $17.94 billion for the fourth quarter.

Toronto-based Brookfield's fee-related earnings were a record $698 million, up 26% on last year thanks to an increase in fee-bearing capital. Total inflows were $25 billion in the quarter.

The company closed its flagship opportunistic credit fund at $16 billion and finalized an institutional close for the fifth vintage of its opportunistic real estate fund, bringing total capital raised to roughly $16 billion. With the final close-out on the real estate fund expected over the balance of the year, Brookfield expects to have its largest pool of capital for opportunistic real estate to date.

The company ended March with a record about $165 billion of deployable capital and it said its balance sheet remained conservatively capitalized, with corporate debt carrying a weighted-average term of 15 years and no maturities through the end of this year.

Asset management distributable earnings rose to $684 million for the quarter from $621 million, and wealth solutions earnings increased to $430 million from $273 million last year.

Brookfield earlier this year finalized an arrangement to simplify its corporate structure. The company now has a direct 73% stake in its listed Brookfield Asset Management arm, where it previously held an equivalent interest in its asset management operations. The move was aimed at broadening BAM's shareholder ownership and paving the way for its inclusion in the most widely followed U.S. market indexes.

Earlier in the week, BAM reported distributable earnings of $654 million in the first quarter, up from $547 million a year earlier. Its fee-related earnings increased by 26% to $698 million, driven by more than $140 billion of capital raised over the past 12 months.

"In spite of increased market volatility, the outlook for our business continues to be strong and our focus remains unchanged," Brookfield President Nick Goodman said.

Brookfield continues to aim for 15%-plus returns to shareholders over the longer term and Goodman said it will continue to reinvest cash flows to grow capital. With the recent volatility and drop in share prices, Brookfield has accelerated share repurchases and bought back $850 million of its stock so far this year, he said.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2025 07:45 ET (11:45 GMT)

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