Brookfield Asset Management and Castlelake announced the closing of a $1.5 billion strategic partnership in which Brookfield has acquired a 51% stake in Castlelake's fee-related earnings and Brookfield Wealth Solutions has committed to invest into Castlelake's investment strategies and private funds.

In a joint statement, co-founders of Castlelake, Rory O'Neill and Evan Carruthers said, "We're thrilled to begin realizing our partnership with Brookfield and the incremental value that it will bring to our firm, clients and employees. Castlelake and Brookfield are aligned in approach and values and complement each other in expertise and experience. We believe that being a part of Brookfield will help accelerate Castlelake's innovation and scale our platform while preserving the expertise and focused approach that has made our firm unique for so many years."

Craig Noble, CEO of Brookfield Credit said, "We're pleased to formally begin our strategic partnership with Castlelake and bring its asset-based investment capabilities into the Brookfield ecosystem. We look forward to working with Castlelake to meet the growing demand for compelling, asset-based opportunities and to supporting the firm's continued growth."

Castlelake was founded in 2005 by O'Neill and Carruthers and is one of the longest-tenured investment firms in the market that specializes in asset-based investments. Its experience entails 19 years of execution and $39 billion of capital deployment across more than 1,300 transactions globally. The firm manages approximately $24 billion of assets on behalf of more than 200 diverse institutional investors.

Castlelake will continue to operate its business independently, retaining its current governance and leadership structure, including O'Neill as Executive Chair and Carruthers as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. It will retain majority ownership of its performance-related earnings.