KKR boosts capital markets, Capstone teams in Japan

Shimizu, who previously spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as head of the Japan financial institutions group, will work with KKR Capital Markets.

Suzuki is joining the Capstone team from McKinsey & Company where he served as principal, focusing on telecom, media and technology as well as operations. He began his career at McKinsey, moved on to senior sales positions at Gateway Japan, Global Freight Exchange and ZS Associates, and then returned to the management consultancy.

"The addition of directors for both KKR Capital Markets and KKR Capstone in Tokyo evidences KKR's optimism for and commitment to the Japan market," said Joseph Bae, managing partner of KKR Asia. "Hiro and Sakae will increase KKR's ability to bring value-add to Japanese companies as they increase their global competitiveness."

KKR's most recent investment in Japan came in 2010 when it bought recruitment services firm Intelligence from Usen Corp. Bae said at the Hong Kong Private Equity & Venture Capital Association forum in January that KKR hadn't seen compelling risk-reward from the Japanese market over the last six years, but he expects this to change.

"It's not that the country lacks capital," he noted. "It lacks operational best practice and management capabilities in certain companies, and it lacks the ability to grow businesses outside of the core market."

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