Brookfield, Birch Hill to Buy Mortgage Firm for $2.1 Billion (1)

Brookfield Asset Management and a private equity partner reached a friendly deal to take over First National Financial Corp., a mortgage company backed by Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith, for about C$2.9 billion ($2.1 billion).

Funds managed by Brookfield and Toronto-based Birch Hill Equity Partners Management Inc. agreed to pay C$48 a share in cash for First National, an originator of commercial and residential mortgages. That’s a 13% premium to where the shares closed Friday.

First National’s board shopped the company to a “broad pool of potential buyers” and received multiple proposals, of which the Brookfield-Birch Hill offer was ...