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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts

KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had completed more than 730 private equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total enterprise value.[2]: 8  As of December 31, 2023, assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively.[2]: 167 

Company type

Public

Financial services:
Private equity
(1976–present)
Investment banking
(2004–present)

1976 (1976) (as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.)

30 Hudson Yards
New York City, U.S.

20 offices in 16 countries (2010)[1]

Worldwide

Henry R. Kravis
(Co-Executive chairman)
George R. Roberts
(Co-Executive chairman)
Joseph Bae
(Co-CEO)
Scott Nuttall
(Co-CEO)

Increase US$14.50 billion (2023)

Increase US$5.357 billion (2023)

Increase US$552.8 billion (2023)

Increase US$317.3 billion (2023)

Increase US$22.86 billion (2023)

4,490 (2023)

kkr.com

The firm 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. Since its founding, KKR has completed a number of transactions, including the 1989 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, which was the largest buyout in history to that point, as well as the 2007 buyout of TXU, which is currently the largest buyout completed to date.[3][4]


In October 2009, KKR listed shares in the company through KKR & Co., an affiliate that holds 30% of the firm's ownership equity, with the remainder held by the firm's partners. In March 2010, KKR filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE),[5] with trading commencing four months later, on July 15, 2010.

Chairmen: and George Roberts (since 1987)

Henry Kravis

Chief Executives: Scott Nuttall and (since 2021)

Joseph Bae

Controversies[edit]

Fossil industry investments and lobbying[edit]

KKR would come 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 would extensively invest in fossil fuel companies which were both harming local communities and destroying the environment.[205][206]

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 . 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.[212][213][214] 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.[215] The New York Times called Nuttall and Joseph Bae potential successors to the firm's founders.[216] 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.

Blackstone Group

Joseph Bae (born 1972) joined KKR from 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.[215] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College.

Goldman Sachs

(1965 – 2019) joined KKR from Goldman Sachs in 1993 and was the former head of Americas Private Equity.[217] After spending 24 years at the firm, he stepped down as part of the Nuttall-Bae transition and would retire.[215] In September 2017, he was elected to Columbia University's board of trustees.[218] 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.[219] He died in July 2019 at age 53.[220]

Alexander Navab

Saul A. Fox left KKR in 1997 to found , a middle market private equity firm with over $1.5 billion of capital under management[221][222]

Fox Paine & Company

Clifton S. Robbins left KKR to join competitor in 2000 and later founded Blue Harbour Group,[223] a private investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut.[224]

General Atlantic Partners

Edward A. Gilhuly and Scott Stuart left KKR in 2004 to launch . 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.[224]

Sageview Capital

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, was later convicted.[224][225][226][227]

Ted Ammon

Paul Hazen, served as chairman and CEO of (1995–2001).[228] 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.

Wells Fargo

CEO of United News and Media (1996–2005)

Clive Hollick, Baron Hollick

joined KKR in 2008 as global head of public affairs.[229]

Ken Mehlman

selected to serve as chairman of the newly formed KKR Global Institute (2013—present)[230]

David Petraeus

professor at Stanford Law School and youngest SEC Commissioner

Joseph Grundfest

former Prime Minister of Australia; commenced June 1, 2019.[231]

Malcolm Turnbull

Over the years, many of KKR's original partners have departed, the most notable being co-founder Jerome Kohlberg. After a leave of absence due to illness in 1985, Kohlberg returned to find increasing differences in strategy with his partners, Kravis and Roberts.[207] 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.[60][208][209]


Since 1996, general partners of KKR have included Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, Paul Raether, Robert MacDonnell, Jose Gandarillas, Michael Michelson, Saul Fox, James H. Greene, Jr., Michael Tokarz, Clifton S. Robbins, Scott Stuart, Perry Golkin and Edward Gilhuly.[210] Among those who left were Saul Fox, Ted Ammon, Ned Gilhuly, Mike Tokarz and Scott Stuart who had been instrumental in establishing KKR's reputation and track record in the 1980s.[211] KKR remains tightly controlled by Kravis and Roberts. The issue of succession has remained an important consideration for KKR's future.

Official website

Bloomberg

Media related to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts at Wikimedia Commons