KKR highlights diversification in investor letter

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts emphasised KKR’s evolving investment strategy in a letter to shareholders included in the firm’s 2010 Annual Report. The publicly traded private equity firm has been diversifying its holdings since its $1.25 billion initial public offering in 2007.

 
Over the course of 2010, KKR raised over $5 billion of new capital, $4 billion of which was dedicated to the firm’s non-traditional private equity strategies, including infrastructure, natural resources, special situations, China growth equity and mezzanine.
 
“People often see KKR’s name and assume private equity is our sole business – after all, for 35 years, we’ve made a name for ourselves in that business … Today, however, we provide much more than private equity to our partners, whether management teams, limited partners, or unit holders, and we believe that our broader capabilities enrich each of these partnerships,” the founders wrote in the letter.
 
Roberts and Kravis attributed the shift in strategy as an opportunity to better utilise the firm’s “sourcing engine,” allowing KKR to act on a greater proportion of the opportunities it explores across its sector base.
 
“As we move forward, our vision for KKR is to convert all of our ideas and relationships into opportunities for our partners,” they said.

KKR also touted a 33 percent increase in the value of its private equity funds. Economic net income for the firm’s private markets segment increased from $661 million in 2009 to $785 million in 2010 – the key driver of which was carried interest generated by private equity fund appreciation. 
 
The firm was hit with a negative second quarter earnings report last month, with economic net income falling to $315 million for the quarter, a 27 percent decline from the $433 million reported at the end of the second quarter last year.