Brookfield companies unveil simplification plans

Brookfield Renewable (BEP) (BEPC) and Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP) (BIPC) announced plans Tuesday to simplify their respective corporate structures (I, II).

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEP) and Brookfield Renewable Corp. (BEPC) will become one publicly traded corporation, Brookfield Renewable Partners Inc., and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (BIP) and Brookfield Infrastructure Corp. (BIPC) will become one publicly traded corporation, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Inc.

The companies said they expect the simplification to be tax-deferred for Canadian and U.S. investors and completed without any meaningful cost to the businesses, while providing securityholders with benefits including improved consolidated trading liquidity through a single listed security; increased demand from current indices and potential additional index inclusion; stronger alignment with long-term capital allocation trends toward indexable and ETF-eligible corporate securities; and elimination of onerous partnership tax reporting forms.

There will be no change to Brookfield Asset Management's (BAM) ownership of the companies as a result of the simplification.