Brookfield makes takeover offer for American Equity Investment Life Holding

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% from 75%.

Brookfield already holds about a 20% 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.

The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.