brookfield asset management’s earnings rose in the first quarter as it grinds ahead with raising money for new funds in the face of volatile markets the torontobased alternative investment firm made 516 million or 32 cents a share in line with estimates by analysts in a bloomberg survey distributable earnings were 563 million up 15 from the same period last year “all our flagship funds are currently in the market fundraising and we have a number of new strategies that are gaining traction” president connor teskey said in a statement wednesday the firm has raised 19 billion since the start of the year brookfield asset management manages money on behalf of pensions sovereign wealth funds and other parties as well as some of brookfield corp’s own capital last year the parent separated the asset management arm setting up a new public company brookfield asset management ltd to hold 25 of the business in pursuit of a higher valuation brookfield corp owns the other 75 brookfield asset’s shares have gone up 16 this year outperforming the sp 500 alternative asset managers are grappling with a radically different investment environment than the one that prevailed over the past decade as higher interest rates have made leveraged acquisitions more expensive and increased the odds of a recession the firm currently has 24 billion committed to a new infrastructure fund and 9 billion to a private equity fund and is near final closes on both brookfield invested 17 billion during the quarter and made a number of new commitments including the takeover of triton international the world’s largest owner and lessor of intermodal containers read more real estate woes weigh on brookfield after december spinoff