KKR & Co. Inc., also known asKohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American globalprivate equity andinvestment company. As of December 31, 2024[update], the firm had completed 770 private-equity investments with approximately $790 billion of total enterprise value.[1] Itsassets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively.[1]: 167
KKR was founded in 1976 byJerome Kohlberg Jr., and cousinsHenry Kravis andGeorge R. Roberts, all of whom had previously worked together atBear Stearns, where they completed some of the earliestleveraged buyout transactions. Notable transactions by KKR include the 1989 leveraged buyout ofRJR Nabisco as well as the 2007 buyout ofTXU Energy, both of which, upon completion, were the largest buyouts ever to date.[2][3]
In a 2016 interview with Bloomberg, founder Henry Kravis described KKR in terms of three broad buckets: private markets, public markets, and capital markets.[4]
While running the corporate finance department forBear Stearns in the 1960s and 1970s,Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., and laterHenry Kravis andGeorge R. Roberts, completed a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments.[5] They targeted family-owned businesses, many of which had been founded in the years followingWorld War II, that were facing succession issues. Many of these companies lacked a viable exit for their founders because they were too small to be taken public and the founders were reluctant to sell out to competitors.[6][7]
In 1964, Lewis Cullman made what some people call the first significantleveraged buyout transaction, acquiring and then sellingOrkin.[8][9] In the following years the three Bear Stearns bankers completed a series of buyouts including Stern Metals (1965), Incom (a division of Rockwood International, 1971), Cobblers Industries ($27 million, 1971), and Boren Clay (1973), as well as Thompson Wire, Eagle Motors and Barrows through their investment in Stern Metals.[7] Despite several highly successful investments, Cobblers ended in bankruptcy.[10][11]
By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear Stearns and the three: most notably, executiveCy Lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated in-house investment fund.[12] This led them to form their own firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.[13] The name had been planned to be Kohlberg Roberts Kravis, but public relations advisors preferred the sound of KKR.[14]
The new KKR completed its first buyout, of manufacturer A.J. Industries, in 1976.[15] KKR raised capital from a small group of investors including theHillman Company andFirst Chicago Bank.[16][17] By 1978, with the revision of theERISA regulations, KKR was successful in raising its first institutional fund with over $30 million of investor commitments.[18] In 1981, KKR expanded its investor base after theOregon State Treasury's public pension fund invested in KKR's acquisition of retailerFred Meyer, Inc. based in Portland. Oregon State remains an active investor in KKR funds.[19][20]
In 1979, KKR completed a risky, precedent-setting $380 million public-to-private leveraged buyout ofHoudaille Industries, a well-known producer of machine tools, industrial pipes, chrome-platedcar bumpers and torsional viscous dampers.[21] It soon ended in a spectacular failure, breakup of the half-century-old company, and the loss of thousands of jobs, even though creditors earned a profit.[22]
KKR completed the first buyout of this public company by tender offer, by acquiring the food distributor and supermarket operator together with the company's chairman Joseph R. Hyde III.
KKR completed the first billion-dollar buyout transaction to acquire theWometco Enterprises, with interests in television, movie theaters, and tourist attractions. KKR acquired the company for $842 million plus the assumption of $170 million of outstanding debt.
KKR completed a friendly $5.5 billion buyout of Safeway to help management avoid hostile overtures fromHerbert andRobert Haft ofDart Drug. Safeway was taken public again in 1990.
KKR acquired the company for $3.3 billion in early 1988 but faced issues with the buyout almost immediately. Most notably, a subsidiary of Jim Walter Corp (Celotex) faced a large asbestos lawsuit and incurred liabilities that the courts ruled would need to be satisfied by the parent company. In 1989, the holding company that KKR used for the Jim Walter buyout filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
At age 61, Kohlberg resigned in 1987. He later founded his own private equity firm,Kohlberg & Co.. Henry Kravis succeeded him as senior partner. Under Kravis and Roberts, the firm was responsible for the 1988leveraged buyout ofRJR Nabisco. RJR Nabisco was the largest buyout in history at that time, at $25 billion, and remained the largest for 17 years. The deal was chronicled inBarbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and later made into a television movie starringJames Garner.[30]
In November 1988, RJR set guidelines for a final bid submission at the end of the month.[44] The management and Shearson group submitted a final bid of $112, a figure they felt certain would enable them to outflank any response by Kravis and KKR. KKR's final bid of $109, while a lower dollar figure, was ultimately accepted by the board of directors of RJR Nabisco.[45] KKR's offer was guaranteed, whereas the management offer lacked a "reset", meaning that the final share price might have been lower than their stated $112 per share.[46]
Additionally, many in RJR's board of directors were concerned about disclosures of Ross Johnson's unprecedented golden parachute deal.[47][48]Time magazine featured Johnson on the cover of its December 5, 1988 issue along with the headline, "A Game of Greed: This man could pocket $100 million from the largest corporate takeover in history. Has the buyout craze gone too far?".[49] KKR's offer was welcomed by the board, and, to some observers, it appeared that the elevation of the reset issue as a deal-breaker in KKR's favor was little more than an excuse to reject Johnson's higher bid of $112 per share. Johnson received $53 million from the buyout.[50] KKR collected a $75 million fee in the RJR takeover.[51] At $31.1 billion of а transaction value including assumed debt, RJR Nabisco was, at the time, by far the largest leveraged buyout in history.[52]
The buyout of RJR Nabisco was completed in April 1989 and KKR spent the early 1990s repaying the debt load through asset sales and restructuring transactions.[53][54][55] KKR did not complete a single investment in 1990, the first such year since 1982. KKR began to focus primarily on its existing portfolio companies acquired during the buyout boom of the late 1980s. Six of KKR's portfolio companies completed IPOs in 1991, including RJR Nabisco andDuracell.[56]
In January 1990, KKR completed the sale of RJR'sDel Monte Foods to a group led byMerrill Lynch. KKR had originally identified a group of divisions that it could sell to reduce debt.[57]
KKR contributed $1.7 billion of new equity into RJR in July 1990 to complete a restructuring of the company's balance sheet.[56] KKR's equity contribution as part of the original leveraged buyout of RJR had been only $1.5 billion.[58][59] In December 1990, RJR announced anexchange offer to swap debt in RJR for a newpublic stock in the company, effectively an unusual means of aninitial public offering and simultaneously reducing debt on the company.[60]
RJR issued additional stock to the public in March 1991 to reduce debt further, resulting in an upgrade of thecredit rating of RJR's debt fromjunk toinvestment grade. KKR began to reduce its ownership in RJR in 1994, when its stock in RJR was used as part of the consideration for its leveraged buyout ofBorden, a producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products.[61][62][63][64] In 1995, KKR divested itself of its final stake in RJR Nabisco when Borden sold a $638 million block of stock.[65]
While KKR no longer had any ownership of RJR Nabisco by 1995, its original investment was not be fully realized until KKR exited its last investment in 2004. After sixteen years of efforts, including contributing new equity, an IPO, asset sales, and exchanging shares of RJR for the ownership ofBorden, KKR finally sold the last remnants of its 1989 investment. In July 2004, KKR agreed to sell its stock inBorden Chemical toApollo Management for $1.2 billion.[66]
In the early 1990s, the absence of an active high yield market prompted KKR to change its tactics, avoiding large leveraged buyouts in favor of industry consolidations through what was described asleveraged buildups orrollups. One of KKR's largest investments in the 1990s was theleveraged buildup of Primedia (nowRent Group) in partnership with former executives ofMacmillan Publishing, which KKR had failed to acquire in 1988.[67] KKR created K-III Communications (nowRent Group),[68] a platform to buy media properties, initially completing the $310 milliondivisional buyout of the book club division ofMacmillan along with the assets of Intertec Publishing Corporation in May 1989.[69][70]
During the early 1990s, K-III continued acquiring publishing assets, including a $650 million acquisition fromNews Corporation in 1991.[71] K-III went public, however instead of cashing out, KKR continued to make new investments in the company in 1998, 2000 and 2001 to support acquisition activity.[72] In 2005, Primedia redeemed KKR'spreferred stock in the company but KKR was estimated to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on itscommon stock holdings as the price of the company's stock collapsed.[70]
By the mid-1990s, the debt markets were improving and KKR had moved on from the RJR Nabisco buyout. In 1996, KKR was able to complete the bulk of fundraising for what was then a record $6 billion private equity fund, the KKR 1996 Fund.[79] However, KKR was still burdened by the performance of the RJR investment and repeated obituaries in the media.[80] KKR was required by its investors to reduce the fees it charged and to calculate itscarried interest based on the total profit of the fund (i.e., offsetting losses from failed deals against the profits from successful deals).[56]
KKR acquiredRegal Cinemas in 1998, only to see the company in bankruptcy by 2000.
KKR's largest investment of the 1990s was one of its least successful. In January 1998, KKR andHicks, Muse, Tate & Furst agreed to the $1.5 billion buyouts ofRegal Entertainment Group.[91] KKR and Hicks Muse had initially intended to combine Regal withAct III Cinemas, which KKR had acquired in 1997 for $706 million[92] andUnited Artists Theaters, which Hicks Muse had agreed to acquire for $840 million in November 1997. Shortly after agreeing to the Regal takeover, the deal with United Artists fell apart and the company was not able to scale up.[93] In 2000, Regal encountered significant financial issues and filed bankruptcy protection and was acquired byPhilip Anschutz.[94]
In 2005, KKR partnered withSilver Lake Partners,Bain Capital,Goldman Sachs Alternatives,Blackstone,Providence Equity Partners, andTPG Capital to acquireSunGard for $11.3 billion. This represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover ofRJR Nabisco in 1988. SunGard was the largest buyout of a technology company until the buyout ofFreescale Semiconductor by affiliates ofBlackstone. The SunGard transaction was notable given the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largestclub deal completed to that point. The involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross-holdings among firms to be generally unattractive.[101][102]
In 2006, KKR raised $17.6 billion for the KKR 2006 Fund, with which the firm began executing a series of some of the largest buyouts in history. KKR's $44 billion takeover of Texas-based power utilityTXU Energy in 2007 was the largest leveraged buyout ofprivate equity in the 21st century and the largest buyout completed to date.[103] Among the most notable companies acquired by KKR in 2006 and 2007 were the following:
KKR andBain Capital, together withMerrill Lynch and the Frist family (which had founded the company) completed a $31.6 billion acquisition of HCA 17 years after it was taken private for the first time in a management buyout. The HCA buyout was the first of several to set new records for the largest buyout, eclipsing the 1989 buyout ofRJR Nabisco. It was later surpassed by the buyouts ofEQ Office, andTXU Energy.
An investor group led by KKR andTPG and together withGoldman Sachs Alternatives acquiredTXU Energy for $44.37 billion. The investor group had to work closely withERCOT regulators to gain the approval of the transaction but had significant experience with the regulators from their earlier buyout ofTexas Genco. TXU was the largest buyout in history. The deal was notable for a drastic change inenvironmental policy for the energy giant, in terms of itscarbon emissions fromcoal power plants and fundingalternative energy.
KKR acquired a 40% stake inLongview Power Plant in 2006; it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020.[116]
In October 2006, KKR acquired a 50% stake in Tarkett, a France-based distributor of flooring products, in a deal valued at about €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion).[117]
In 2007, KKR filed with theSecurities and Exchange Commission to raise $1.25 billion by selling an ownership interest in its management company.[125][126] The filing came less than two weeks after theinitial public offering of rival private equity firmBlackstone Inc. KKR had previously listed its KPE vehicle in 2006, but for the first time, KKR offered investors an ownership interest in theprivate equity firm itself. The onset of the credit crunch and the weak IPO market dampened the prospects of obtaining a valuation attractive to KKR. The flotation was repeatedly postponed and called off by the end of August.[127]
In December 2011, Samson Investment Company was acquired by a group of private equity investors led by KKR for approximately $7.2 billion and Samson Resources Corporation was formed.[134] With the severe downturn in oil and natural gas prices, in September 2015, Samson filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and during its bankruptcy process, sold several large assets.[135]
In June 2014, KKR acquired a one-third stake in Spanish energy businessAcciona Energy, at a cost of €417 million ($567 million). The international renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets, largelywind farms, across 14 countries including theUnited States,Italy andSouth Africa.[139]
In August, KKR invested $400 million for 18% of Fujian Sunner Development, China's largest chicken farmer, which breeds, processes and supplies frozen and fresh chickens to consumers and corporate clients, such as KFC and McDonald's, across China.[140] In September, the firm invested $90 million in lighting and electrics firmSavant Systems.[141]
Also in 2014, KKR acquired commercial landscaping company ValleyCrest fromMichael Dell's investment firmMSD Capital, and combined it with landscape company Brickman, which it had owned since 2013, to form BrightView.[142][143] The following year, in addition to acquiring Exponent's British rail ticket websiteTrainline,[144][145] KKR bought a majority stake in Selecta Group, a European vending services operator, from Allianz Capital Partners.[146]
In 2016, KKR purchased two Hispanic grocery chains,Northern CaliforniaMi Pueblo andOntario, California–based Cardenas. In February, seven months before acquiring US software companyEpicor,[147] KKR invested $75 million in commercial real estate lender A10 Capital.[148]
In October, it invested $250 million in OVH to be used for further international expansion;[149] this funding round valuedOVH at over $1 billion, making it aunicorn. In December, the firm soldCapsugel for $5.5 billion to theLonza Group.[150]
In September, two months after KKR merged Mi Pueblo and Cardenas Market,[157] Toys "R" Us, Inc. filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy, stating the move would give it flexibility to deal with $5 billion in long-term debt, borrow $2 billion so it would be able to pay suppliers for the upcoming holiday season and invest in improving current operations.[158][159][160]
During 2017, KKR purchased an 80% stake in Dixon Hospitality Group forA$190 million, renaming it Australian Venue Co. (AVC); it was expanded and then sold for US$900 million in 2023.[161][162]
In July 2018, while acquiringRBMedia, one of the largest independent publishers and distributors ofaudiobooks[163] and Taipei-based LCY Chemical for NT$47.8 billion ($1.56 billion US),[164] the company sold Gallagher Shopping Park in theWest Midlands toHana Financial Group for £175 million.[165][166]
In February 2019, KKR acquired Brightsprings, and in a 2022 letter from four U.S. senators includingElizabeth Warren andBernie Sanders,Joseph Bae and Scott Nutall were asked to explain the substandard care since the acquisition.[167] In the same month, it acquiredTele München Gruppe[168] and the German film distributor Universum Film GmbH.[169]
Also in August, KKR became the biggest shareholder of German media groupAxel Springer SE, paying $3.2 billion for a 43.54% stake.[173] Later that month, the firm also acquired a majority stake in Heidelpay fromAnaCap Financial Partners for more than €600 million.[174][175]
In June, when it led a $48 million funding round for Artlist, a provider ofroyalty-free music, sound effects and video,[183][184] KKR acquired Roompot Group, a provider of holiday parks in Europe, from French private equity firm PAI Partners for approximately €1 billion.[185][186][187] In August, a group primary represented by private-equity firmClayton, Dubilier & Rice acquiredEpicor for $4.7 billion.[188]
In November, two months after investing $755 million inReliance Industries' retail arm,[189] it partnered withRakuten to acquire 85% ofSeiyu Group, the Japanese nationwide retail chain owned byWalmart.[190] In January 2021, KKR acquired a majority stake in the catalogue of American musicianRyan Tedder, including his bandOneRepublic and the songs that he composed for other artists since 2016.[191]
In November 2021, in addition to selling Audiobooks.com to streaming company Storytel for $135 million,[192] KKR partnered withGlobal Infrastructure Partners to acquireCyrusOne for $15 billion.[193] In February 2022, the firm acquired 8.5% ofNexon.[194][195]
In May 2022, after acquiring Mitsubishi UBS Realty, a Japanese real estate asset manager,[196] it led about $200 million investment round in Semperis, a cybersecurity company focused on identity protection.[197]
In October, KKR acquiredSimon & Schuster, aBig Five publisher, for $1.6 billion; Simon & Schuster employees receivedemployee stock ownership in the company on completion of the acquisition.[212][213] In the same month, it secured a minority stake in Catalio Capital Management, a firm specializing in the management ofventure capital and medical investment funds.[214]
In November 2023, KKR acquired Potter Global Technologies from Gryphon Investors.
In January 2023, KKR invested 700 billion won in 2023 after the first purchase of 400 billion won in private equity bonds by Taeyoung Group holding company TY Holdings.[215]
In February 2024, KKR acquired the End-User Computing (EUC) division ofVMware, which had been acquired byBroadcom, in a deal worth $3.8 billion.[216] The division, renamedOmnissa, includes the VDI productOmnissa Horizon and the device management suiteWorkspace ONE UEM (formerlyAirWatch). In April, KKR acquired Indian company Healthium MedTech in an $839 million deal.[217]
Also in 2024 the Hamburg-based asset manager of renewable energiesEncavis AG was acquired (currently up to 91%) by KKR along with Viessmann and ABACON CAPITAL as co-investors.
In February 2025, a month after acquiring Dawsongroup,[225] British healthcare property developerAssura rejected a $2 billion takeover bid from KKR andUniversities Superannuation Scheme.[226] That same month, in addition to purchasing 54% of Healthcare Global Enterprises for $400 million,[227] it acquiredFuji Soft via a tender offer, after a bidding war withBain Capital.[228][229][230]
In March, Japanese manufacturer of optical equipment,Topcon, agreed to be taken private through a management buyout led by KKR, which acquired a majority stake for approximately¥256 billion (US$1.7 billion) alongside investments fromJapan Investment Corporation and Topcon's management, valuing the company at¥348 billion (US$2.3 billion).[233]
In April, in addition to buying Datagroup for around $500 million,[234] it agreed to acquire Assura for £1.6 billion in partnership withStonepeak.[235] In addition, it agreed to purchase for $3.1 billion a joint venture ofS&P Global andCME Group called OSTTRA, responsible for providing services across interest rate, foreign exchange, equity and credit markets.[236]
On June 3, it backed out of a deal five months after submitting a £4 billion equity bid to acquire a majority stake inThames Water.[237][238][239] In July, when it acquired ProTein,[240][241] it said it teamed up withT-Mobile US to buy the fiber internet company Metronet, with the two buyers each paying $4.9 billion.[242]
In July 2025, KKR outbidAdvent International to acquire British supplier of precision instrumentation and controls,Spectris, for £4.7 billion ($6.46 billion) including debt.[243]
KKR acquired sports-focused private equity firmArctos Partners. The firm holds stakes in teams across major U.S. leagues, including the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer, and was valued at about $1 billion.[244]
in January 2026, the firm led the acquisition of Singapore-basedST Telemedia'sdata center assets for roughly $10 billion USD. The deal was in partnership withSingtel, a Singaporean telecommunications company.[245] With this, KKR will hold a 75% stake in STT GDC, while Singtel will own the remaining 25%.[246]
More than 70 artists of Sónar festival signed an open letter stating "we oppose any affiliation between the cultural sector and entities complicit in war crimes".[251] More than 200 performers signed an open letter urging Field Day festival event organizers to cut ties with KKR.[252][254] Boiler Room also issued a statement following pressure by artists and attendees explaining that they had no say on the acquisition by Superstruct Entertainment and reaffirmed their adherence to theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement until international law andhuman rights are respected [by Israel].[255]
Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. - After a leave of absence due to illness in 1985, Kohlberg returned to find increasing differences in strategy with his partners, Kravis and Roberts.[256] In 1987, Kohlberg left KKR to found a new private equity firm,Kohlberg & Company, which resumed the investment style that Kohlberg had practiced atBear Stearns and in KKR's earlier years, acquiring smaller,middle-market companies.[56][257][258]
Scott C. Nuttall (born 1972) formerly headed KKR's fastest-growing department, the Global Capital and Asset Management Group. He joined KKR in November 1996 after leaving theBlackstone Group. With the support of co-founder George Roberts, Nuttall spearheaded the campaign to transform KKR from a private equity firm into an investment firm after noting lost opportunities amounting to billions of dollars that the company had had to turn down. He also has served on the board ofFiserv (a financial services firm) since it acquired, for $22 billion, in 2019, the KKR-backed First Data Corp.[259][260] Nuttall was named co-president and co-COO, with Joseph Bae, on July 17, 2017, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firm, concentrating on KKR's corporate and real estate credit, capital markets, hedge fund and capital raising businesses together with the firm's corporate development, balance sheet, and strategic growth initiatives.[261][262] In 2021, he was promoted to co-CEO. He graduated, summa cum laude, from theWharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with aBachelor of Science degree.
Joseph Bae (born 1972) joined KKR fromGoldman Sachs in 1996. Most recently, he was the managing partner of KKR Asia and the global head of KKR's Infrastructure and Energy Real Asset businesses. Mr. Bae has been the architect of KKR's Asian expansion since 2005. He has been named co-president and co-chief operating officer with Scott Nuttall on July 17, 2017, to be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firm. Bae focuses on KKR's global private equity businesses as well as the Firm's real asset platforms across energy, infrastructure, and real estate private equity. In 2021, he was promoted to co-CEO.[262] He graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree fromHarvard College.
Edward A. Gilhuly and Scott Stuart left KKR in 2004 to launch Sageview Capital. Prior to this, Gilhuly was the managing partner of KKR's London-based European operations. Stuart had managed KKR's energy and consumer products industry groups.[269]
Ted Ammon, started several new ventures including Big Flower Press, which printed newspaper circulars, and Chancery Lane Capital, a boutique private equity firm, before being murdered in hisLong Island home October 2001. The lover of his estranged, now deceased wife,Generosa Ammon, was later convicted.[270][269][271][272][273]
Paul Hazen, served as chairman and CEO ofWells Fargo (1995–2001).[274] Hazen later returned to KKR to serve as chairman of Accel-KKR, a joint venture withAccel Partners, and later as chairman of KKR's publicly listed affiliate,KFN.
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US$21.88 billion (2024)
US$3.076 billion (2024)
