Japan's JBIC to invest in KKR Americas fund

The rationale for participation in the fund is to support Japanese companies looking to expand their business operations overseas. The bank said in a statement that its collaboration with KKR and Mizuho Bank will serve "not only to strengthen the overseas business support service provided by Japanese financial institutions, but also to enhance the overseas business deployment of Japanese companies."

KKR Americas Fund XII has a target of $10 billion but the private equity firm said in its first-quarter earnings call that it expects to hit the hard cap of $12 billion, not including the GP contribution. The fund targets companies with enterprise values of $500 million to $2 billion, primarily in North America. Latin America investments will be considered on an opportunistic basis.

KKR closed its previous North America vehicle in 2013 on $9 billion. Asian LPs included China Reinsurance, representing the first overseas private equity commitment by a Chinese insurance company.

JBIC is a policy bank that complements private sector financial institutions through lending, investment and guarantee operations. It made commitments of JPY3.25 trillion ($30.2 billion) during the 2014 financial year - up 47% year-on-year - to take its total outstanding loans, equity participations and guarantees to JPY17.3 trillion. Equity participations, to entities such as PE funds, in 2014 reached JPY32.8 billion.

JBIC made its first commitment to a traditional buyout fund in 2014, investing $50 million in CVC Capital Partners' fourth pan-Asian fund. Earlier this year it pledged $50 million for Advantage Partners' debut Asia fund. This followed commitments of $20 million to CMH Growth Fund - a China-focused growth equity fund run by Mizuho Securities and China Merchants Group - and $100 million to an emerging markets financial institutions fund being raised by the International Finance Corporation.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• North America
• Fundraising
• Buyout
• LPs
• KKR
• JBIC