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00:00Bruce this forum was convened to discuss challenges to the global economy and to prosperity. You're a pretty busy guy overseeing some 250 billion dollars in investments to the degree that you have time to think about them. What challenges concern you most. Our our biggest worry in the world today is that the stock market is at twenty two thousand on the Dow. Interest rates are very low. They're not going any lower. And we've been eight years into a business cycle and we see no issues on the horizon. But that's all it's always worrisome. So we we're taking we're taking we're being cautious and making sure we just think about those things. Feels too long in the tooth. You know we just did it. And again I state there's no issues we see on the horizon in fact the opposite. I can explain that if you want but go ahead. You know in fact in most countries we see good economic results going on. It's just we're eight years into a business cycle and we're at very high points in the stock market. So one should be cautious. One person's challenge is another person's opportunity. It's always been that way given the state of the world today and where you think it might be headed some of the concerns that you have. Where do you see the best opportunities. You know our our business is about raising large sums of money having operating people in many countries in the world and waiting for the opportunity to deploy money and property and infrastructure where capital is not available and therefore over the last 18 24 months we've put a lot of money in South America specifically Brazil. We're putting money into India today and we just move move our capital and we never know where it's going to be but it's going to be in one of the countries where we can make actionable opportunities into reality and we take the time to do that and we'll move it where it where it's the most important. You say you're being cautious. Does that mean that you are deploying capital at a slower pace than you might otherwise. So I would say look bottom line is everywhere every all the time somewhere in the world there is an opportunity to put money to work. So we're cautious in the United States. We're probably net sellers of assets in the United States. On balance and have been and have been for a while but we've put 20 billion dollars to work in other parts of the world and we still. That's not to say we're not always buying in the United States because it's a big market and there's lots of add on opportunities. But we bought general growth out of bankruptcy in 2009 there aren't those opportunities right now in the United States. Where else do you feel like it is time to sell or it might soon be time to sell . I'd say developed markets where there's lots of money and leverage lending markets are strong. So outside the U.S. that's where the U.S. in particular but Canada is good. Australia is good amazingly even though commodities have been tough. And the UK and Europe have been there's there's opportunity to sell things the conversations here today Bruce are largely about the relationship between business and government. How much of a factor does confidence in political leaders and systems of government play in the investment decisions that you make. Look we're in 30 countries and we we pick them very specifically because we need a culture of respect of capital to make long term investments in countries. So if we're not comfortable that we can have that we won't go to a country and when we go to a country where there for a very long period of time and commit to it. So we think very specifically about it and it's very important. Are there places where you feel like the system of government the political leadership is becoming and perhaps the rule of law and other things that go along with it are becoming more attractive where they were sort of off the map for Brookfield but now maybe you need to start thinking about it . You know I just say that are we. We normally do not commit any major amounts of money in any country unless we've been there for seven to 10 years. So we go we put people on the ground . We do small things. We figure it out and then we commit large amounts of money. This is very serious investing and needed to take your time. So nothing turns overnight for us. One of the hallmarks of the way Brookfield does business is your contrarian view. So as a contrarian where would you say you're most at odds with conventional wisdom or consensus right now where we're usually at odds with everything we were buying in France when everyone thought France was going out of business. We've been buying in the U.K. when Brexit is happening we're buying retail in America because retails out of favor we're buying in Brazil over the last 18 months because everyone thought Brazil had its had major major problems were in India because there's no capital. Bottom line we our business is about moving money to places where we believe that longer term they will be good businesses or countries but that no one. Most people don't have the availability of capital or the EV for the operating people to action the opportunities. And that's our whole business. So where are we. Where would you see your most contrary. All of those were where every one of those is a contrary I agree Hall today and I'd say the biggest one was Brazil over the past 18 months. There was no foreign investor in the country and most local investors didn't have any money left left to double down and therefore most of the incredible franchises that we bought over the past two years as the market comes back we're blessed with no other available buyers competing against us and that usually it doesn't always make it right. But usually it favors good returns. How easy is it to raise capital right now. You know it's always hard but where I've heard other people say that it's easier to raise capital now than it has ever been in their careers. People in your business I would although I and we just raised 14 billion dollar infrastructure fund and 10 billion dollar real estate fund five billion dollar private equity fund we're with other funds we have access to as much money as most people in the world. Business is always hard. Don't ever take it for granted. We never take anything for granted and we're grateful to all the institutions and invest with us. I would say the bottom line is interest rates are zero in Japan 50 basis points in Germany and 2 percent the United States. What we do which is deliver 7 to 20 percent returns on real assets depending on the risk and the strategy is very attractive to most global money today and therefore there's a lot of money in our sector and the money coming into our sector. It depends what we do is very operational in nature and therefore there's not that many people that can do that type of things that we do . If you're just buying how people want to. It takes a long time. We've spent there's not too many people who spent 30 years building an investment organization an operating organization on top of that to be able to action to be able to take advantage of opportunities. So and many will over time be able to build it out but it's a lot of work. And if you're buying infrastructure or real estate at the market in the latest bid it may be overpriced. There may be too much money around for those opportunities that you need expertise. There's less .

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Brookfield CEO Flatt on Challenges and Opportunities

Bruce Flatt, Brookfield Asset Management chief executive officer, discusses the company's challenges and opportunities with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York. (Source: Bloomberg)

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