Brookfield makes takeover offer for American Equity Investment Life Holding

TORONTO – Brookfield Reinsurance Ltd. has made a stock-and-cash offer to buy American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. (AEL) that values the company at US$4.3 billion.

Under the non-binding expression of interest, the reinsurance arm of Brookfield Corp. is offering US$55 for each AEL share it does not already own. The offer includes US$38.85 in cash and US$16.15 worth of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. class A limited voting shares.

Brookfield Reinsurance would acquire the Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) shares required to pay the non-cash portion of the offer from Brookfield Corp. The transaction would reduce Brookfield Corp.’s stake in BAM to about 73 per cent from 75 per cent.

Brookfield already holds about a 20 per cent stake in AEL.

AEL confirmed it has received the offer and said it would not comment further until its board has completed its review of the proposal.

Both companies said there was no guarantee that an agreement will be reached.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BN, TSX:BNRE, TSX:BAM)