Company Description
Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE: BBU; TSX: BBU.UN) is described in its public disclosures as a global business services and industrials company. It focuses on owning and operating high-quality businesses that provide essential products and services and that, according to the company, benefit from a strong competitive position. Investors have flexibility to gain exposure either through Brookfield Business Partners L.P., a limited partnership, or through Brookfield Business Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BBUC), a corporation that offers exchangeable shares linked to the same underlying business.
Brookfield Business Partners is identified as the flagship listed vehicle of Brookfield Asset Management’s Private Equity Group. Brookfield Asset Management is characterized in company news as a global alternative asset manager with assets under management across areas such as infrastructure, renewable power and transition, private equity, real estate and credit. Brookfield’s private equity business is described as focusing on businesses that provide essential products and services.
Business focus and operating segments
According to prior descriptions and recent results releases, Brookfield Business Partners operates through several reportable segments: Industrials, Business Services, Infrastructure Services and a Corporate or Corporate and Other segment. The company’s own materials state that it targets businesses that are positioned as low-cost producers and that benefit from barriers to entry. Within these segments, Brookfield Business Partners consolidates or holds interests in a range of operating companies.
Disclosures in quarterly results highlight that the Industrials segment includes an advanced energy storage operation and an electric heat tracing systems manufacturer. The Business Services segment includes operations such as a dealer software and technology services business and a residential mortgage insurer. The Infrastructure Services segment has included offshore oil services, modular building leasing services and lottery services operations, among others. These examples are drawn from the company’s own segment discussions in its financial results and illustrate the diversity of activities that roll up into the Brookfield Business Partners platform.
Examples of underlying businesses
Brookfield Business Partners’ communications reference several specific businesses in which it holds interests. For example, its Industrials segment includes an advanced energy storage operation, and Clarios, described in a news release as a global leader in advanced low-voltage battery technologies for mobility, is owned by Brookfield Business Partners together with institutional partners of Brookfield Asset Management. The company has also disclosed ownership of an electric heat tracing systems manufacturer acquired in January 2025.
In Business Services and related areas, Brookfield Business Partners has referenced a dealer software and technology services operation, a residential mortgage insurer, and a Canadian residential and multi-family mortgage lender that it agreed to acquire and later reported as privatized through a partnership. It has also referred to an engineered components manufacturing operation (DexKo), a work access services operation (BrandSafway) and a dealer software and technology services operation (CDK Global) in connection with the sale of partial interests to a new evergreen private equity fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management.
Relationship with Brookfield Asset Management
Brookfield Business Partners is closely linked to Brookfield Asset Management’s private equity activities. Company news repeatedly describes Brookfield Business Partners as the flagship listed vehicle of Brookfield Asset Management’s Private Equity Group. Brookfield’s private equity business is said to manage a substantial base of assets and to focus on operational transformation in businesses that provide essential products and services. Brookfield Capital Partners, a strategy within Brookfield’s private equity platform, has been noted as the source of funding for certain acquisitions in which Brookfield Business Partners is expected to participate alongside other Brookfield-managed capital.
Brookfield Business Partners has also disclosed transactions with other Brookfield-managed vehicles, such as the sale of partial interests in several portfolio companies to a new evergreen private equity fund targeting high-net-worth investors. In that transaction, Brookfield Business Partners received units of the new fund with a redemption mechanism linked to net asset value, illustrating how the partnership recycles capital while maintaining exposure to underlying businesses.
Capital allocation and corporate structure initiatives
Public announcements emphasize capital recycling, acquisitions and unit or share repurchases as recurring themes in Brookfield Business Partners’ strategy. The company has reported investing in new businesses, selling partial interests in existing operations, and using proceeds and liquidity to fund buybacks of its units and exchangeable shares under normal course issuer bids accepted by the Toronto Stock Exchange. It has described these repurchases as an attractive use of funds when trading prices do not, in its view, fully reflect value.
Brookfield Business Partners has also announced plans to simplify its corporate structure. In a news release, the company stated that it has approved plans to convert Brookfield Business Partners L.P. and Brookfield Business Corporation into one publicly traded Canadian corporation to be known as BBU Inc. Under the described plan, all BBU limited partnership units, BBUC class A exchangeable shares and certain related units would be exchanged for new class A shares of BBU Inc. on a one-for-one basis. The company has outlined anticipated benefits such as broader access to investors who prefer corporate structures, improved trading liquidity through a single listed security, and simplified financial reporting.
Reporting framework and regulatory status
Brookfield Business Partners is a foreign private issuer for U.S. securities law purposes and files reports on Form 20-F. It also furnishes current information on Form 6-K, including interim reports, press releases, notices of special meetings, arrangement agreements and voting results. The partnership’s units trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange, and the company has indicated that, following completion of its proposed corporate reorganization, a new Canadian corporation is expected to become the primary reporting issuer.
In its financial reporting, Brookfield Business Partners presents measures such as Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EFO as segment metrics, with explanations of how these non-IFRS measures are derived and why the partnership believes they are useful for understanding the performance of its operations. These definitions and reconciliations are included in its results releases and interim reports.
Geographic and sector exposure
Earlier descriptions of Brookfield Business Partners refer to operations across multiple regions, and the partnership’s portfolio, as described in its own communications, spans sectors such as industrial manufacturing, energy storage, infrastructure services, financial services and business services. Examples include advanced energy storage, electric heat tracing systems, engineered components, dealer software and technology services, modular building leasing services, lottery services and mortgage-related financial businesses. These examples, drawn from the company’s segment commentary and transaction announcements, illustrate that Brookfield Business Partners’ exposure extends beyond a single construction or building-focused industry classification.
Investor considerations
For investors researching BBU stock or seeking to understand what Brookfield Business Partners does, the company’s own disclosures highlight a focus on owning and operating businesses that provide essential products and services and that, in its view, benefit from strong competitive positions. Its role as the flagship listed vehicle of Brookfield Asset Management’s Private Equity Group connects public investors to a portfolio of private equity-style investments across industrial and business services sectors.