Brookfield targets Australia’s Reliance again with $2.9-billion bid

Global investment firm Brookfield is taking a fourth shot at buying Reliance Worldwide with an A$4.1-billion (US$2.91-billion) bid, despite a profit slump and an uncertain business outlook for the Australian plumbing supplies group created by tariffs and volatile housing activity.

Reliance announced on Tuesday it had granted Brookfield Capital Partners LLC due-diligence access for up to eight weeks after tabling its most recent bid of A$4.75 per share.

The takeover target said Brookfield had made a series of all-cash indicative offers in April and May starting at A$4.15, before rising to A$4.25 and A$4.50 a share. Brookfield declined to comment on the bid.

Brookfield’s offer is up 5.5 per cent compared to its last one and is at a 31.6-per-cent premium to Reliance’s closing share price on Monday, the company said.

Reliance shares rose almost 25 per cent on Tuesday to close at A$4.50, the highest level in more than a year, but still traded below the Brookfield offer.

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Reliance said its full-year net profit fell to US$6.3-million in the 2026 financial year ended June 30 from US$125-million in the prior year. The company said the sharp slide was the result of a US$103.3-million write-down taken on the closure of an Asia Pacific metals manufacturing facility.

A majority of Reliance’s profit is generated in North America, where chief executive Heath Sharp said the business’s prospects had been hard hit by tariffs. A more-than-40-per-cent increase in copper prices had also hurt Reliance, he said.

“The last few years have been really bloody tough,” Sharp told Reuters in an interview.

“Our people have mobilized to deal with what they’ve had to face and will continue to do that regardless of ownership structure. We’ll do what we have to do. We believe in our strategy, we’ll get on with it.”

Reliance has appointed Goldman Sachs and Oaktower Partnership as financial advisers for the proposal.