Brookfield in Talks to Acquire Blackstone’s La Trobe

Manuel Baigorri, Dinesh Nair and Benjamin Robertson, Bloomberg News

A meeting room at the headquarters of Brookfields Asset Management, located in the company's Brookfield Place Sydney office building in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, June 17, 2021. Canadian investment giant Brookfield is bucking the trend when it comes to hybrid work in a post-pandemic world, 90% of staff have been coming in to the headquarters office of Covid-safe Sydney for close to a year, according to Managing Partner Sophi Fallman. Photographer: Lisa Maree Williams/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is in talks to acquire one of Australia’s largest non-bank lenders, La Trobe Financial, from Blackstone Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

The two private equity firms are in advanced discussions about a deal for Blackstone’s controlling stake in the Melbourne-based credit asset manager, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Deliberations are ongoing and a transaction isn’t guaranteed, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Representatives for Blackstone and Brookfield declined to comment on Thursday. A representative for La Trobe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

La Trobe has more than A$13 billion ($9.5 billion) in assets under management according to its website. The firm was weighing a potential sale or initial public offering last year that could have valued it at more than A$2 billion, the Australian Financial Review reported.

Blackstone announced it would acquire 80% of La Trobe in 2017, seeing opportunity at the time in the shrinking loan appetite by Australia’s largest retail banks. The deal was completed two years later. Also in 2017, buyout firm KKR & Co. agreed to buy Australian non-bank mortgage lender Pepper Group Ltd. for A$676 million.