KKR & Co.

KKR & Co. Inc.

Headquarters at 30 Hudson Yards
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: KKR S&P 500 component
Industry	Financial services: Private equity (1976–present) Investment banking (2004–present)
Founded	1976; 49 years ago (1976) (as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.)
Founders	Henry Kravis George R. Roberts Jerome Kohlberg Jr.
Headquarters	30 Hudson Yards New York City, U.S.
Number of locations	20 offices in 16 countries
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Henry R. Kravis (co-executive chairman) George R. Roberts (co-executive chairman) Joseph Bae (co-CEO) Scott Nuttall (co-CEO)
Products	Management buyouts Leveraged finance Venture capital Growth capital
Revenue	US$21.88 billion (2024)
Net income	US$3.076 billion (2024)
AUM	US$637.6 billion (2024)
Total assets	US$360.1 billion (2024)
Total equity	US$23.65 billion (2024)
Number of employees	4,834 (2024)
Website	kkr.com
Footnotes / references [1]

KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global private equity and investment company. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had completed private-equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total enterprise value.^[1] Its assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively.^[1]: 167

KKR was founded in 1976 by Jerome Kohlberg Jr., and cousins Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts, all of whom had previously worked together at Bear Stearns, where they completed some of the earliest leveraged buyout transactions. Notable transactions by KKR include the 1989 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco as well as the 2007 buyout of TXU Energy, both of which, upon completion, were the largest buyouts ever to date.^[2][3]

KKR is headquartered at 30 Hudson Yards, Manhattan, New York, with offices in Beijing, Dubai, Dublin, Houston, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Menlo Park, Mumbai, Paris, Riyadh, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo.^[1]

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]

History of private equity and venture capital
Early history
(origins of modern private equity)
The 1980s
(leveraged buyout boom)
The 1990s
(leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble)
The 2000s
(dot-com bubble to the credit crunch)
The 2010s
(expansion)
The 2020s
(COVID-19 recession)

While running the corporate finance department for Bear Stearns in the 1960s and 1970s, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., and later Henry Kravis and George 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 following World 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 acquired and then sold Orkin in what some call the first significant leveraged buyout transaction.^[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 Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, which led to the formation of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.^[12] Most notably, Bear Stearns executive Cy Lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated investment fund within Bear Stearns.^[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 the Hillman Company and First Chicago Bank.^[16][17] By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA 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 the Oregon State Treasury's public pension fund invested in KKR's acquisition of retailer Fred Meyer, Inc. 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 of Houdaille Industries, a well-known producer of machine tools, industrial pipes, chrome-plated car bumpers and torsional viscous dampers.^[21] It soon ended in a spectacular failure, breakup of the half-a-century-old company and loss of thousands of jobs, even though creditors earned a profit.^[22]

The firm's acquisitions during the 1980s buyout boom include:

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 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. RJR Nabisco was the largest buyout in history at that time, at $25 billion, and remained the largest buyout for the next 17 years. The deal was chronicled in Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and later made into a television movie starring James Garner.^[30]

In 1988, F. Ross Johnson was the president and CEO of RJR Nabisco, a leading producer of food and tobacco products, formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. In October 1998, Johnson proposed a $17 billion ($75 per share) management buyout of the company with the financial backing of investment bank Shearson Lehman Hutton and its parent company, American Express.^[31][32]

Several days later, Kravis, who had originally suggested the idea of the buyout to Johnson, presented a new bid for $20.3 billion ($90 per share) financed with an aggressive debt package.^[33][34][35] KKR had the support of equity co-investments from pension funds and other institutional investors, including Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and United Technologies corporate pension funds, as well as endowments from MIT, Harvard and the New York State Common Retirement Fund.^[36] However, KKR faced criticism from existing investors over the firm's use of a hostile takeover in the buyout of RJR.^[37]

KKR proposed to provide a joint offer with Johnson and Shearson Lehman but was rebuffed and Johnson attempted to stonewall KKR's access to financial information from RJR.^{[38][39][40][41]} Rival private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. was invited into the process by Shearson Lehman but attempted to provide a bid for RJR with a consortium of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Procter & Gamble, Ralston Purina and Castle & Cooke.^[42] Ultimately, the Forstmann consortium came apart and did not provide a final bid for RJR.^[43]

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 and Duracell.^[56]

In January 1990, KKR completed the sale of RJR's Del Monte Foods to a group led by Merrill 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 mid-December 1990, RJR announced an exchange offer to swap debt in RJR for a new public stock in the company, effectively an unusual means of an initial 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 the credit rating of RJR's debt from junk to investment 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 of Borden, 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, taking RJR public, asset sales, and exchanging shares of RJR for the ownership of Borden, KKR finally sold the last remnants of its 1989 investment. In July 2004, KKR agreed to sell its stock in Borden Chemical to Apollo 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 as leveraged buildups or rollups. One of KKR's largest investments in the 1990s was the leveraged buildup of Primedia (now Rent Group) in partnership with former executives of Macmillan Publishing, which KKR had failed to acquire in 1988.^[67] KKR created K-III Communications (now Rent Group),^[68] a platform to buy media properties, initially completing the $310 million divisional buyout of the book club division of Macmillan 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 from News 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's preferred stock in the company but KKR was estimated to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on its common stock holdings as the price of the company's stock collapsed.^[70]

In 1991, KKR partnered with Fleet/Norstar Financial Group in the 1991 acquisition of the Bank of New England, from the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.^[73] In January 1996, KKR exchanged its investment for a 7.5% interest in Fleet Bank.^[74] In 1992, KKR completed the buyout of American Re Corporation from Aetna^[75] as well as a 47% interest in TW Corporation, later known as The Flagstar Companies and owner of Denny's.^[76] Among the other notable investments KKR completed in the early 1990s included World Color Press (1993–95),^[77] RELTEC Corporation (1995) and Bruno's (1995).^[78]

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 its carried interest based on the total profit of the fund (i.e., offsetting losses from failed deals against the profits from successful deals).^[56]

KKR's activity level accelerated over the second half of the 1990s, as it made a series of notable investments including Spalding Holdings Corporation and Evenflo (1996),^[81] Newsquest (1996),^[82] KinderCare Learning Centers (1997),^[83] Amphenol Corporation (1997),^[84] Randalls Food Markets (1997),^[85][86] The Boyds Collection (1998),^[87] MedCath Corporation (1998),^[88] Willis Group Holdings (1998),^[89] Smiths Group (1999), and Wincor Nixdorf (1999).^[90]

KKR's largest investment of the 1990s was one of its least successful. In January 1998, KKR and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst agreed to the $1.5 billion buyouts of Regal Entertainment Group.^[91] KKR and Hicks Muse had initially intended to combine Regal with Act III Cinemas, which KKR had acquired in 1997 for $706 million^[92] and United 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, destroying the strategy to eliminate costs by building a larger combined company.^[93] In 2000, Regal encountered significant financial issues and filed bankruptcy protection and was acquired by Philip Anschutz.^[94]

At the start of the 21st century, the landscape of large leveraged buyout firms was changing. Several large and storied firms, including Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and Forstmann Little & Company were dragged down by heavy losses in the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Although KKR's track record since RJR Nabisco was mixed, losses on such investments as Regal Entertainment Group, Spalding, Flagstar and Rent Group (previously K-III Communications) were offset by successes in Willis Group, Wise Foods, Inc., Wincor Nixdorf and MTU Aero Engines, among others.^[56]

Additionally, KKR was one of the few firms that were able to complete large leveraged buyout transactions in the years immediately following the collapse of the Internet bubble, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Bell Canada Yellow Pages.^[56][95]

KKR was able to realize its investment in Shoppers Drug Mart through a 2002 IPO and subsequent public stock offerings.^[96]

The directories business was be taken public in 2004 as Yellow Pages Income Fund, a Canadian income trust.^[97]

In 2004, a consortium comprising KKR, Bain Capital and real estate development company Vornado Realty Trust announced the $6.6 billion acquisition of Toys "R" Us, the toy retailer. A month earlier, Cerberus Capital Management made a $5.5 billion offer for both the toy and baby supplies businesses.^[98] The Toys "R" Us buyout was one of the largest in several years.^[99] Following this transaction, by the end of 2004 and in 2005, major buyouts were once again becoming common and market observers were stunned by the leverage levels and financing terms obtained by financial sponsors in their buyouts.^[100]

In 2005, KKR was one of seven private equity firms involved in the buyout of SunGard in a transaction valued at $11.3 billion. KKR's partners in the acquisition were Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Blackstone Group, Providence Equity Partners, and TPG Capital. This represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988. SunGard was the largest buyout of a technology company until the buyout of Freescale Semiconductor by affiliates of The Blackstone Group. The SunGard transaction was notable given the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largest club 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 a new $17.6 billion fund, 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 utility TXU Energy in 2007 proved to be the largest leveraged buyout of the mid-2000s buyout boom and the largest buyout completed to date.^[103] Among the most notable companies acquired by KKR in 2006 and 2007 were the following:

KKR acquired a 40% stake in Longview 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 November 2006, KKR announced it would form a A$4 billion partnership with the Seven Network of Australia.^{[118][119][120]}

On January 23, 2007, KKR announced it would invest $700 million through a private investment in public equity in Sun Microsystems.^[121]

In January 2008, KKR announced it had made a $1.25 billion PIPE investment in Legg Mason through a convertible preferred stock offering.^[122]

In addition to its successful buyout transactions, KKR was involved in the failed buyout of Harman International Industries (NYSE: HAR), an upscale audio equipment maker. On April 26, 2007, Harman announced it had entered an agreement to be acquired by KKR and Goldman Sachs.^[123] In September 2007, KKR and Goldman backed out of the $8 billion buyout of Harman.^[124]

In 2007, KKR filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission^[125] to raise $1.25 billion by selling an ownership interest in its management company.^[126] The filing came less than two weeks after the initial public offering of rival private equity firm Blackstone Inc. KKR had previously listed its KPE vehicle in 2006, but for the first time, KKR offered investors an ownership interest in the management company 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]

The following year, in July 2008, KKR announced a new plan to list its shares. The plan called for KKR to complete a reverse takeover of its listed affiliate KKR Private Equity Investors in exchange for a 21% interest in the firm.^[128] In November 2008, KKR announced a delay of this transaction until 2009. Shares of KPE had declined significantly in the second half of 2008 with the onset of the 2008 financial crisis.^[129]

In October 2009, KKR listed shares in KKR & Co. on the Euronext exchange.^[130]

In March 2010, KKR filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE),^[131] Trading commenced on July 15, 2010.^[132][133]

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 2012, KKR made its first retail real-estate investment in Yorktown Center in Illinois.^[136]

In March 2013, KKR exited its joint venture in music company BMG Rights Management, selling its 51% stake to Bertelsmann.^[137]

In January 2014, KKR acquired Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc for $2.4 billion from two private equity companies - Stone Point, and Hellman & Friedman.^[138] In June 2014, KKR announced it was taking a one-third stake in Spanish energy business Acciona Energy, at a cost of €417 million ($567 million). The international renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets, largely wind farms, across 14 countries including the United States, Italy and South Africa.^[139] In August 2014, KKR announced it was investing $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 2014, the firm invested $90 million in lighting and electrics firm Savant Systems.^[141] Also in 2014, KKR acquired commercial landscaping company ValleyCrest from Michael Dell's investment firm MSD Capital, and combined it with landscape company Brickman, which it had owned since 2013, to form BrightView.^[142][143]

In January 2015, KKR acquired British rail ticket website thetrainline.com, previously owned by Exponent.^[144][145]

In December 2015, KKR acquired 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 California Mi Pueblo and Ontario, California–based Cardenas. In February 2016, KKR invested $75 million in commercial real estate lender A10 Capital.^[147] On September 1, 2016, KKR announced that it had acquired Epicor Software Corporation, an American software company.^[148] In October 2016, KKR invested $250 million in OVH to be used for further international expansion.^[149] This funding round valued OVH at over $1 billion, making it a unicorn. In December 2016, the Lonza Group announced it would acquire Capsugel for $5.5 billion from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.^[150]

In March 2017, KKR partnered with a fund linked to Dell to acquire GfK.^[151] In July 2017, KKR acquired WebMD for $2.8 billion^[152] and, the following month, it acquired PharMerica for $1.4 billion including debt,^[153] Pepper Group Limited for $518 million,^[154] Covenant Surgical Partners,^[155] and Envision Healthcare Corporation's ambulance business (American Medical Response) for $2.4 billion.^[156] On July 6, 2017, KKR announced it would merge Northern California Mi Pueblo and Ontario-based Cardenas Market. On September 18, 2017, Toys "R" Us, Inc. filed for Chapter 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.^{[157][158][159]}

During 2017, KKR purchased an 80% stake in Dixon Hospitality Group for A$190 million, renaming it Australian Venue Co. (AVC). It was expanded and then sold for US$900 million in 2023.^[160][161]

In July 2018, KKR purchased RBMedia, one of the largest independent publishers and distributors of audiobooks.^[162] On July 22, 2018, KKR & Co. announced it was taking over Taipei-based LCY Chemical Corp. in a deal valued at NT$47.8 billion ($1.56 billion US), part of a plan for more transactions involving controlling stakes in the Greater China region.^[163] In July 2018, it was announced that KKR sold Gallagher Shopping Park, West Midlands in the UK to South Korean investors, Hana for £175 million.^[164]

In February 2019, KKR acquired Brightsprings, and in a May 2022 letter from four United States Senators, Joe Bae and Scott Nutall were asked to explain the substandard care since their acquisition. KKR acquired the German media company Tele München Gruppe.^[165] Later that month, KKR acquired German film distributor Universum Film GmbH.^[166] In April 2019, KKR acquired German film production company Wiedemann & Berg Film Production with the latter company's television arm W&B Television remained a separate entity.^[167] Two months later in July 2019, KKR acquired the Canadian software company Corel.^[168] In August 2019, KKR acquired Arnott's Biscuits, the Australian snack unit of Campbell Soup Company, for $2.2 billion.^[169] Later that month, KKR became the biggest shareholder of German media group Axel Springer, paying $3.2 billion for a 43.54% stake.^[170] In August 2019, KKR also acquired a majority stake in German payment service provider to the e-commerce industry Heidelpay from AnaCap Financial Partners for more than €600 million.^[171][172]

In December 2019, KKR, together with Alberta Investment Management Corporation, acquired a 65% stake in the controversial Coastal GasLink Pipeline project from TC Energy.^[173] The pipeline route crosses the territory of the Wetʼsuwetʼen Nation, which opposes the project. Enforcement of an injunction to build through the Wet'suwet'en territory led to the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests.^[174]

In December 2019, KKR announced it would acquire OverDrive, Inc., a major distributor of eBooks to libraries.^[175] The potential for consolidation with KKR subsidiary RBMedia was quickly noted in the library and publishing industry;^[176] the acquisition was finalized in June 2020.^[177]

In March 2020, KKR announced the acquisition of Viridor from Pennon Group for £4.2 billion.^[178]

In May 2020, KKR announced that it will invest $750 million in cosmetics producer Coty. A separate plan was revealed in which several divisions of Coty are set to be spun out into a new company. According to the deal, KKR will own 60%, while Coty 40% of the new business.^[179] The same month, it was announced that KKR is set to make an investment into Indian digital company Jio Platforms. It was reported that KKR was negotiating to buy a $1.5bn stake of a maximum value reach of $65bn for Jio Platforms.^[180] In late June 2020, KKR announced it would lead a $48 million funding round for Artlist, a provider of royalty-free music, sound effects and video.^[181] Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company reported a profit of $16 billion in the Q2 for 2020.^[182]

In June 2020, KKR announced an agreement to acquire Roompot Group, a provider of holiday parks in Europe, from French private equity firm PAI Partners. Financial details have not been disclosed but a source familiar with the transaction said it valued the Dutch company at around 1 billion euros.^{[183][184][185]}

In August 2020, it was reported that KKR was preparing to sell its Epicor Software Corp. branch. On August 31, it was officially confirmed that a group primary represented by private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is set to buy the branch in a deal worth $4.7 billion. The acquisition was one of the largest purchases of 2020.^[186] In September 2020, KKR announced an investment of $755 million in the retail arm of India-based Reliance Industries Ltd.^[187]

In November 2020, KKR teamed up with Rakuten to acquire 85% of Seiyu, the Japanese nationwide retail chain owned by Walmart.^[188]

In January 2021, KKR acquired a majority stake in the catalogue of American musician Ryan Tedder, including his band OneRepublic and the songs that he composed for other artists since 2016.^[189]

In November 2021, KKR sold Audiobooks.com to streaming company Storytel for $135 million.^[190] Also that month, KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners announced they would acquire CyrusOne for $15 billion.^[191]

In February 2022, it was reported by Bloomberg that Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund had purchased just over a 5% stake in Capcom and Nexon, reportedly worth US$883 million, while KKR acquired 8.5% of Nexon, the Japanese-South Korean video game company.^[192][193]

In April 2022, KKR announced the signing of an agreement to purchase Barracuda Networks from Thoma Bravo, which closed in August that year;^[194][195] later that same month, KKR announced it had acquired all shares of Mitsubishi UBS Realty, a Japanese real estate asset manager.^[196]

In May 2022, KKR led about $200 million investment round in Semperis, a cybersecurity company focused on identity protection.^[197]

In June 2022, KKR sold Cardenas to funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management for an undisclosed amount.^[198]

In June 2022, KKR rose to the top of Private Equity International's PEI 300 ranking for the first time, replacing Blackstone Inc. as the largest private equity firm in the world.^[199][200] KKR slipped back to second place in 2023 and 2024, before regaining top spot in the 2025 list.^[201]

In July 2022, the company acquired a 25 per cent minority stake in Northumbrian Water Group, a UK water utility company, from CK Infrastructure Holdings for approximately £870 million.^[202]

In October 2022, KKR acquired ISO tank services provider Boasso Global from Apax Partners.^[203][204]

In April 2023, KKR was reported to be in talks to buy a stake in PR firm FGS Global.^[205] On April 11, KKR had agreed to buy a 30% stake in FGS Global that valued the company at about $1.4 billion. As part of the deal, existing investor Golden State Capital would sell its entire stake to KKR.^[206][207]

In August 2023, KKR agreed to buy Simon & Schuster, a Big Five publisher, from Paramount Global in an all-cash deal worth $1.6 billion. Simon & Schuster employees received an ownership stake in the company on completion of the acquisition.^[208] The acquisition was completed on October 30, 2023.^[209] In August 2023, KKR sold its controlling stakes in Australian Venue Co. to PAG for about A$1.4 billion.^[210][211]

In October 2023, KKR secured a minority stake in Catalio Capital Management, a firm specializing in the management of venture capital and medical investment funds.^[212]

In November 2023, KKR acquired Potter Global Technologies from Gryphon Investors.^[213]

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.^[214]

In February 2024, KKR announced that it would purchase the End-User Computing (EUC) division of VMware, which had recently been acquired by Broadcom, in a deal worth $3.8bn.^[215] The division, renamed Omnissa, includes the VDI product Horizon and the device management suite Workspace ONE UEM (formerly AirWatch).

In March 2024, it was announced that KKR had acquired a majority stake in the US-based solar energy and energy storage developer Avantus for an undisclosed amount.^[216]

In April 2024, KKR acquired Indian company Healthium MedTech in an $839 million deal.^[217]

In June 2024, KKR retained second spot in Private Equity International's 2024 PEI 300 ranking, behind Blackstone Inc.^[218]

In June 2024, KKR acquired Superstruct Entertainment from Providence Equity, owner of European music festivals including Wacken Open Air (Germany), Boardmasters (UK) and Zwarte Cross (The Netherlands) for approximately €1.3 billion.^{[219][220][221]}

On 23 November 2024, Sky News reported that CVC Capital Partners, TF1, RedBird Capital Partners, All3Media, Mediawan and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts had been linked to a potential takeover bid for ITV plc and a possible break-up of core assets such as ITV Studios and ITVX.^[222]

On 17 February 2025, British healthcare property developer Assura rejected a $2 billion takeover bid from KKR and pension fund Universities Superannuation Scheme.^[223]

On 19 February 2025, the company submitted a £4 billion equity bid to acquire a majority stake in Thames Water.^[224][225] However, on 3 June 2025, KKR pulled out of the deal.^[226]

In February 2025, KKR acquired Fuji Soft via a tender offer, after a bidding war with Bain Capital.^{[227][228][229]} The company also acquired 54% of Healthcare Global Enterprises for $400 million.^[230]

In April 2025, KKR, along with Stonepeak, agreed to acquire Assura plc, a UK-listed real estate company, its for £1.6 billion.^[231] It also acquired Datagroup for around $500 million.^[232] Also in April 2025, KKR agreed to acquire OSTTRA, a joint venture of S&P Global and CME Group, for $3.1 billion. OSTTRA provides post-trade services across interest rate, foreign exchange, equity and credit markets.^[233]

In its first quarter 2025 results, the company reported an adjusted net income of US $1.03 billion, and assets under management rose 15 percent to US $664 billion.^[234]

• Chairmen: Henry Kravis and George Roberts^[235] (since 1987)
• Chief Executives: Scott Nuttall and Joseph Bae^[235] (since 2021)

• Jerome Kohlberg Jr. (1976–1987); co-chairmen
• Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, and Jerome Kohlberg Jr. (1976–1987); co-CEOs
• Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts (1987–2021); co-CEOs

KKR came under fire after a report, which was part of the Private Equity Climate Risks project, discovered that despite stating that it would be dedicated to pursue a climate action strategy, KKR extensively invested in fossil fuel companies which were both harming local communities and destroying the environment.^[236][237]

KKR is a major investor in Axel Springer SE, which owns Yad2, an Israeli classified ad site, which runs ads for developments in the West Bank.^[238]

With the purchase of Superstruct Entertainment in June 2024 for €1.3 billion, it became one of the main leisure and show providers in the world.^[239][240] When that became known, it caused controversy and a boycott campaign, especially among music festivals such as Sónar, Field Day, Viña Rock, Resurrection Fest, O Son do Camiño, Monegros Desert Festival, Arenal Sound Festival, Granada Sound, Festival Internacional de Benicàssim and also by event broadcasters like Boiler Room.^{[238][241][242]}

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".^[238] More than 200 performers signed an open letter urging Field Day festival event organizers to cut ties with KKR.^[241][243] Boiler Room also issued a statement following pressure by artists and attendees explaning that they had no say on the acquisition by Superstruct Entertainment and reaffirmed their adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement until international law and human rights are respected [by Israel].^[244]

• 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.^[245] In 1987, Kohlberg left KKR to found a new private equity firm, Kohlberg & Company, which resumed the investment style that Kohlberg had practiced at Bear Stearns and in KKR's earlier years, acquiring smaller, middle-market companies.^{[56][246][247]}

• Henry Kravis

• George R. Roberts

• 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 the Blackstone 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 of Fiserv (a financial services firm) since it acquired, for $22 billion, in 2019, the KKR-backed First Data Corp.^[248][249] 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.^[250][251] In 2021, he was promoted to co-CEO. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree.

• Joseph Bae (born 1972) joined KKR from Goldman 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.^[251] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College.

• Alex Navab (1965–2019) joined KKR from Goldman Sachs in 1993 and was the former head of Americas Private Equity.^[252] After spending 24 years at the firm, he stepped down as part of the Nuttall-Bae transition and would retire.^[251] In September 2017, he was elected to Columbia University's board of trustees.^[253] He was born in Isfahan, Iran, but followed his family and became a refugee in Greece following the Iranian Revolution. They immigrated to the United States two years later. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College, Columbia University, and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. In 2016, he was honored with Ellis Island Medal of Honor.^[252] He died in July 2019 at age 53.^[254]

• Saul A. Fox left KKR in 1997 to found Fox Paine & Company, a middle market private equity firm with over $1.5 billion of capital under management^[255][256]

• Clifton S. Robbins left KKR to join competitor General Atlantic Partners in 2000 and later founded Blue Harbour Group,^[257][258]

• 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.^[258]

• 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 his Long Island home October 2001. The lover of his estranged, now deceased wife, Generosa Ammon, was later convicted.^{[259][258][260][261][262]}

• Paul Hazen, served as chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo (1995–2001).^[263] Hazen later returned to KKR to serve as chairman of Accel-KKR, a joint venture with Accel Partners, and later as chairman of KKR's publicly listed affiliate, KFN.

• Clive Hollick, CEO of United News and Media (1996–2005)

• Ken Mehlman joined KKR in 2008 as global head of public affairs.^[264]

• David Petraeus, selected to serve as chairman of the newly formed KKR Global Institute (2013—present)^[265]

• Joseph Grundfest, professor at Stanford Law School and youngest commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

• Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia.^[266]

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