What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Brookfield (BN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Brookfield generated $5.26B of operating cash flow and -$7.27B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -138.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Brookfield (BN) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Brookfield's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Brookfield (BN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.26B

Capex

-$12.5B

Free Cash Flow

-$7.27B

FCF Margin

-138.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Brookfield (BN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$7.27B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Brookfield (BN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.26B	$5.26B
Capital Expenditure	-$12.5B	-$7.27B
Free Cash Flow	-$7.27B	-$7.27B
Acquisitions	-$4.23B	-$11.5B
Other Investing	$6.01B	-$5.49B
Share Buybacks	-$761M	-$6.26B
Dividends Paid	-$562M	-$6.82B
Net Debt Change	$17.3B	$10.5B
Other Financing	-$7.51B	$3B
Forex Effect	-$355M	$2.64B
Net Cash Increase	$2.64B	$2.64B

Operating Cash Flow$5.26B
Capital Expenditure-$12.5B
Free Cash Flow-$7.27B
Acquisitions-$4.23B
Other Investing$6.01B
Share Buybacks-$761M
Dividends Paid-$562M
Net Debt Change$17.3B
Other Financing-$7.51B
Forex Effect-$355M
Net Cash Increase$2.64B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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