KKR & Co has raised US$9.3 billion for its third Asia fund, amassing the biggest ever pool by a private equity firm in the region, as the company steps up investments in Japan.
About US$800 million of the pool comes from the firm’s balance sheet and employees, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The fund is 55 percent larger than its second Asia fund, which had generated a net internal rate of return of 20.6 percent as of March 31, the New York-based firm said in the statement.
The pool of money was amassed even as the number of megadeals — transactions larger than US$1 billion — dropped in the region last year and total investment declined by 26 percent, according to Bain & Co data.
Still, one bright spot has been Japan, where more companies are targeting overseas acquisitions and selling non-core assets.
More than half of KKR’s US$4.7 billion in transactions in the region so far this year were in Japan, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
“We see a diverse set of opportunities across [the] Asia-Pacific [region] stemming from rising consumption and urbanization trends in key markets as well as larger carve-out and cross-border transactions in countries such as Japan,” KKR head of Asia private equity Ming Lu (路明) said in the statement.
KKR bought control of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc in a US$2.3 billion deal in April, three months after the private equity firm purchased Hitachi Koki Co for US$1.3 billion.
In November last year, the US fund acquired Calsonic Kansei Corp for US$4.5 billion from Nissan Motor Co, as Japan’s second-biggest automaker looks to spin off less important businesses to focus on electric vehicles and self-driving cars.
With the latest fund, KKR’s private equity business has US$68 billion in assets worldwide. KKR raised US$4 billion for its first Pan-Asian fund in 2007 and US$6 billion for a follow-on pool in 2013.
The firm started raising its third fund amid the departures of two of its most senior China executives, David Liu (劉海峰) and Julian Wolhardt, who have been investing in the country for two decades and were behind some of the firm’s most successful investments in the region.
While the Greater China area represents close to half the total Asia-Pacific market, valuations reached record levels last year amid ample capital chasing deals, Bain & Co said.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
RSS