A Cheap, Safe Dividend Stock That Retirees Should Know About

Brookfield Business stock trades at a discount to net asset value. Here’s why retirees seeking cheap, safe dividend income should take a closer look right now.

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Key Points
  • Brookfield Business Corporation trades at roughly half its estimated net asset value, offering retirees a rare margin of safety.
  • The company owns market-leading businesses in industrials, business services, and infrastructure, generating over $2.4 billion in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
  • Management has compounded net asset value per share at mid-teens growth rates since the company launched, targeting 15% or better realized returns over time.

If you are a retiree hunting for a stock that gives you sleep-at-night safety, steady income, and a real shot at capital growth, Brookfield Business Corporation (TSX:BBU) deserves a spot on your radar right now. The TSX dividend stock still trades below management’s estimated intrinsic value, even after a sharp rise over the past year.

Brookfield Business is a global private equity company backed by the broader Brookfield ecosystem, which has spent over 25 years compounding capital at exceptional rates.

The business buys large, essential companies, improves their operations, and eventually sells them at a profit. It has done this more than 25 times, generating over US$8 billion in cumulative proceeds and achieving a realized multiple of two times invested capital.

That track record is the foundation of the investment case.

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Source: Getty Images

Brookfield Business owns quality businesses

Clarios is Brookfield’s industrial crown jewel and is a global leader in low-voltage automotive batteries.

One in every three vehicles on the road today runs on a Clarios battery. Since Brookfield acquired the business in 2019, annual EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) has grown by roughly 40%, or nearly US$700 million. Management is optimistic about similar growth over the next five years.

Other businesses include Sagen, Canada’s leading private mortgage insurer, and Scientific Games, which provides the backbone technology for government-run lotteries worldwide. CDK Global supplies mission-critical software to automotive dealerships across North America.

Most of the companies owned by Brookfield Business are boring, essential, and difficult to replace.

BBU is a top stock for value investors

In 2025, Brookfield Business generated US$2.4 billion in EBITDA and US$1.2 billion in adjusted funds from operations. The company recycled over US$2 billion from asset sales, used roughly US$1 billion to pay down corporate debt, invested US$700 million in four new acquisitions, and returned about US$235 million to shareholders through buybacks, all in a single year.

The corporate balance sheet ended the year with approximately US$2.6 billion in pro forma liquidity. Credit markets remain cooperative, and Brookfield completed over US$20 billion in financing across its portfolio in 2025, cutting refinanced borrowing costs by more than 50 basis points.

Meanwhile, the company completed its corporate reorganization in early 2026, converting to a single listed corporation.

Management expects this change to roughly double index-driven demand for the shares, which could meaningfully close the gap between where BBUC trades and where it should be trading.

Management has compounded net asset value per share at a mid-teens rate since inception, and the current discount reflects the complexity of understanding a private-equity-style structure in a public wrapper.

The conversion to a single corporation makes the stock simpler to own, especially for international investors and index funds that previously could not touch it.

Brookfield Business CEO Anuj Ranjan said on the Q4 2025 earnings call that “every dollar that is recycled is reinvested by the same Brookfield team, which has compounded capital at exceptional rates for decades.”

Add a disciplined buyback program, a strong liquidity position, and a portfolio of businesses built for an era of reshoring and artificial intelligence-driven automation, and the case becomes even more compelling.

For retirees who want a stock that is cheap, built to last, and run by proven operators, BBU stock checks every box.

Fool contributor Aditya Raghunath has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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