The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition Brookfield Asset Management's transformation in the late-1990s from the Edper/Brascan empire was hugely complicated but it has emerged as a Bay Street darling. Guest columnist Gabriel Lowenberg writes inevitably, as the market cap climbed, the dividend yield declined -- to just above 1 per cent. This is a far cry from the 1998 dividend yield of 4.7 per cent. Brookfield under a visionary board and chief executive officer Bruce Flatt did this by simplifying its corporate structure into sole-purpose public entities, such as Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield Energy Partners. In addition, the group has moved more heavily into managing other companies' assets. This strategy has allowed it to earn substantially more revenue from management fees than it did 15 years ago. At the end of 2014, Brookfield Asset managed $200-billion in assets, of which $89-billion, or 45 per cent, are "fee-bearing capital." The conclusion is aptly made by the title of its 2014 annual report, which declares Brookfield Asset a "Global Alternative Asset Management Company." Ms. Lowenberg agrees with the statement, calling the process "multiple expansion."