KKR announces CEO succession

Bae (pictured) shares the CEO role with Scott Nuttall, with whom he has served as co-president and co-COO for the last four years. That initial stage in the succession transition saw Kravis and Roberts continue to lead KKR as co-chairmen and co-CEOs. Now they have become executive co-chairmen, though they will remain actively involved in the business.

Concurrent with the leadership change, KKR is also rationalizing its ownership structure. An entity through which certain current and former employees hold interests in the firm will be folded into the main entity, while preferred stock will be eliminated. Holders of common stock will be entitled to vote on a one share, one vote basis.

First cousins Kravis and Roberts established KKR in 1976 with Jerome Kohlberg. They are credited with pioneering the leveraged buyout structure. A first institutional fund of $1 billion closed in 1984. Twenty-seven years and more than 40 funds later, KKR has $429 billion in assets under management across private equity, credit, real assets, and hedge funds. It also has insurance subsidiaries.

There are 21 offices globally, including eight in Asia. Bae, who joined KKR in 1996, started fact-finding missions to the region in 2004 and formally launched operations the following year. A debut Asia private equity fund closed at $4 billion in 2008, followed by a $1 billion China growth fund in 2010. A second pan-regional fund of $6 billion came three years later and then a third of $9.3 billion in 2017.

Fund IV closed in April at $15 billion, the largest US dollar-denominated private equity vehicle ever raised for the region. Total assets in Asia now exceed $30 billion, with KKR closing its latest infrastructure and real estate funds earlier this year at $3.9 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively. The firm is also active in the credit space.

Bae returned to the US in 2015 but retained his position as managing partner of KKR Asia while taking on the global infrastructure and energy real asset portfolio. On becoming co-president and co-COO, he was responsible for private equity, energy, infrastructure, and real estate, with Nuttall overseeing credit, capital markets, and hedge funds, as well as distribution activities.

Bae was replaced as head of Asia by Ming Lu, who remains in the role.

“Whether reflecting on the business, our mission or the team that undertakes it, we are proud of what we have built to support companies and serve our clients over the last four and a half decades,” Kravis and Roberts said in a statement.

“Joe and Scott – over the last 25 years – have played a significant role in that endeavor and in shaping the firm, its culture, and our market-leading businesses into what they are today. As co-presidents and co-chief operating officers, they have worked collaboratively and cemented a strong leadership team that has taken the firm to new heights.”

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• Topics
• People
• GPs
• Asia
• KKR
• Joseph Y. Bae
• Henry R. Kravis
• George R. Roberts
• Appointments