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Brookfield Business Partners (BBU) Announces Plans for Unit Split and Creation of an Exchange Corporation

August 2, 2021 6:47 AM EDT

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (“Brookfield Business Partners” or “BBU”) (NYSE: BBU; TSX: BBU.UN) today announced the intention to create a Canadian corporation to provide investors with greater flexibility to invest in BBU’s globally diversified services and industrial operations and the targeted returns associated with BBU’s growth strategy.

Brookfield Business Partners intends to distribute to existing unitholders, class A shares of the new corporation, Brookfield Business Corporation (“BBUC”). From an economic and accounting perspective, the transaction will be analogous to a unit split as it will not result in any underlying change to BBU’s aggregate cash flows or net asset value except for the adjustment for the number of units/shares outstanding.

“The creation of BBUC is important to support the continued growth of our business and enhance our capital markets following,” said Cyrus Madon, Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Business Partners. “We expect BBUC, as a corporation, will broaden BBU’s appeal to new investors and increase our eligibility for inclusion in several meaningful indices that BBU is not eligible for today.”

The class A shares will be structured with the intention of being economically equivalent to units of BBU. The class A shares are intended to allow investors the ability to own the equivalent economic exposure to BBU through a corporate structure. Each BBUC share will have the same distribution as a BBU unit and will be exchangeable, at the shareholder’s option, for one BBU unit.

Unitholders are expected to receive one BBUC class A share for every two BBU units held in the form of a special distribution.

Following completion of the special distribution there will be no change to the $0.25 per unit annual distribution made on BBU units, and we intend to pay an annual dividend of $0.25 per exchangeable share of BBUC. As a result, the aggregate distributions received by holders of the units and exchangeable shares will be 50% higher.

Torys LLP is acting as legal advisor to Brookfield Business Partners for this transaction.

The majority of the BBUC class A shares will be held by the holders of Brookfield Business Partners units immediately after the effective split. Brookfield Business Partners will own all the BBUC class B and C shares. The class A and class B shares will control 25% and 75%, respectively, of the aggregate voting rights of the shares of BBUC. BAM, as a unitholder of Brookfield Business Partners, is expected to hold approximately 64% of the BBUC class A shares, which is equivalent to its effective ownership of Brookfield Business Partners units. BBUC intends to apply to list its class A shares in the United States on the NYSE and in Canada on the TSX. Subject to the receipt of normal course regulatory approvals, Brookfield Business Partners anticipates completing the special distribution by year end of 2021.

In connection with this transaction, a registration statement (including a prospectus) has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and a preliminary prospectus has been filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. You should read the registration statement and prospectus and other documents that have been filed with the SEC and with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities for more complete information about the transaction. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC web site at www.sec.gov or by visiting SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Alternatively, a copy of the prospectus can be sent to you at no cost, upon request, using the contact information below.

Brookfield Business Partners is a business services and industrials company focused on owning and operating high-quality businesses that benefit from barriers to entry and/or low production costs.

Brookfield Business Partners is the flagship listed business services and industrials company of Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager with over $600 billion of assets under management. More information is available at www.brookfield.com.

Brookfield Business Partners is listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. For more important information, please visit our website at https://bbu.brookfield.com.



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