Subject: Re: Sell BAM, buy BN?
Baybrooke, the trust is in this computation of copy/paste. I wonder if there's options and subjective involved, actually I don't wander. The simple truth is that we'd be out in droves questioning...if it wasn't for Bruce Flatt. With Bruce? Trust is it, nothing more and nothing less. Second thing by the way...you mention Brookfield Property. Have you read their latest report and FFO/DE figures?

Brookfield's posting:

We make reference to Distributable Earnings ('DE'). We define DE as the sum of distributable earnings from our asset management business, distributable operating earnings from our insurance solutions business, distributions received from our ownership of investments, realized carried interest and disposition gains from principal investments, net of earnings from our Corporate Activities, preferred share dividends and equity-based compensation costs. We also make reference to DE before realizations, which refers to DE before realized carried interest and realized disposition gains from principal investments. We believe these measures provide insight into earnings received by the company that are available for distribution to common shareholders or to be reinvested into the business.

Realized carried interest and realized disposition gains are further described below:

Realized Carried Interest represents our contractual share of investment gains generated within a private fund after considering our clients' minimum return requirements. Realized carried interest is determined on third-party capital that is no longer subject to future investment performance.
Realized Disposition Gains from principal investments are included in DE because we consider the purchase and sale of assets from our directly held investments to be a normal part of the company's business. Realized disposition gains include gains and losses recorded in net income and equity in the current period, and are adjusted to include fair value changes and revaluation surplus balances recorded in prior periods which were not included in prior period DE.
We make reference to Funds from Operations ('FFO'). We define FFO as net income attributable to shareholders prior to fair value changes, depreciation and amortization, and deferred income taxes, and it includes realized disposition gains that are not recorded in net income as determined under IFRS. FFO also includes the company's share of equity accounted investments' FFO on a fully diluted basis.

FFO consists of the following components:

Operating FFO represents the company's share of revenues less direct costs and interest expenses; excludes realized carried interest and disposition gains, fair value changes, depreciation and amortization and deferred income taxes; and includes our proportionate share of FFO from operating activities recorded by equity accounted investments on a fully diluted basis. We present this measure as we believe it assists in describing our results and variances within FFO.
Realized Carried Interest as defined above.
Realized Disposition Gains are included in FFO because we consider the purchase and sale of assets to be a normal part of the company's business. Realized disposition gains include gains and losses recorded in net income and equity in the current period, and are adjusted to include fair value changes and revaluation surplus balances recorded in prior periods which were not included in prior period FFO.
We use DE and FFO to assess our operating results and the value of Brookfield Corporation's business and believe that many shareholders and analysts also find these measures of value to them.