for other uses see kkr disambiguation . kkr & co. l.p. type public traded as nyse kkr industry financial services private equity 1976 present investment banking 2004 present founded 1976 founder henry kravis george r. roberts jerome kohlberg jr. headquarters 9 west 57th street suite 4200 new york city new york 10019 united states number of locations 13 offices in 9 countries 1 key people henry r. kravis co chairman co ceo george r. roberts co chairman co ceo products management buyouts leveraged finance venture capital growth capital revenue us 8.896 billion 2013 net income us 691.2 million 2013 aum us 98.0 billion 2012 total assets us 71 billion 2015 number of employees 826 2011 2 website www.kkr.com kkr & co. l.p. formerly known as kohlberg kravis roberts & co. is an american multinational private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts headquartered in new york city . the firm sponsors and manages private equity investment funds . a pioneer in the leveraged buyout industry the firm has completed over 400 billion of private equity transactions since its inception . 2 3 the firm was founded in 1976 by jerome kohlberg jr. and cousins henry kravis and george r. roberts all of whom had previously worked together at bear stearns where they completed some of the earliest leveraged buyout transactions . since its founding kkr has completed a number of landmark transactions including the 1989 leveraged buyout of rjr nabisco which was the largest buyout in history to that point as well as the 2007 buyout of txu which is currently the largest buyout completed to date . 4 5 kkr has completed investments in over 160 companies since 1977 completing at least one investment in every year except in 1982 and in 1990 . 6 kkr has 13 additional offices in the united states europe and asia . 1 the firm is currently located in the solow building 9 w. 57th street but recently announced its intentions to occupy a newly constructed 30 hudson yards . 7 in october 2009 kkr listed shares in the company through kkr & co. an affiliate that holds 30 % of the firm s ownership equity with the remainder held by the firm s partners . in march 2010 kkr filed to list its shares on the new york stock exchange nyse 8 with trading commencing four months later on july 15 2010 . contents 1 the firm kkr 2 investment funds and other affiliates 2.1 private equity funds 2.2 kkr financial 2.3 kkr private equity investors 3 history 3.1 founding and early history 3.2 barbarians at the gate kkr s leveraged buyout of rjr nabisco 3.3 early 1990s the aftermath of rjr nabisco 3.4 early 1990s investments 3.5 1996 1999 3.6 2000 2005 3.7 since 2005 and the buyout boom 3.8 initial public offering 3.9 2010 to present day 4 notable current and former employees 5 works about kkr 6 see also 7 notes 8 references 9 external links the firm kkr edit kkr is operated by its managing partners henry kravis and george r. roberts and a team of approximately 140 investment professionals and 400 total employees organized into industry focused groups . 2 kkr is headquartered in the solow building at 9 west 57th street manhattan new york with u.s. offices in menlo park san francisco houston and washington d.c. and offices abroad in london paris hong kong tokyo beijing mumbai dubai seoul s o paulo and sydney . 1 kkr invests primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments including pipe investments in public companies . it has traditionally specialized in private equity investments focusing on specific industry sectors where the firm has created nine dedicated investment groups . the industries in which kkr has developed a specialization include 9 chemicals consumer products energy & natural resources financial services health care industrial media and communications retail technology the professionals in each of kkr s industry focused groups are expected to have developed a proficiency in their respective industries . 9 the firm has traditionally had strong ties with its investors . 10 investment funds and other affiliates edit private equity funds edit kkr has historically relied primarily on private equity funds pools of committed capital that are raised from a broad array of institutional investors e.g. pension funds insurance companies investment banks commercial banks endowments fund of funds high net worth individuals sovereign wealth funds . 2 11 as of march 31 2014 kkr had completed fund raising for approximately 23 traditional investment funds in the us europe and asia with total committed capital of approximately us 80 billion fund vintage year committed capital m kkr fund 1976 1977 31 kkr fund 1980 1980 357 kkr fund 1982 1982 328 kkr fund 1984 1984 1 000 kkr fund 1986 1986 672 kkr fund 1987 1987 6 130 kkr fund 1993 1993 1 946 kkr fund 1996 1996 6 012 kkr european fund 1999 3 085 kkr millennium fund 2002 6 000 kkr european fund ii 2005 5 751 kkr fund 2006 2006 17 642 kkr asian fund 2007 4 000 kkr european fund iii 2008 6 238 kkr e2 investors annex fund 2009 209 kkr china growth fund 2010 1 010 kkr natural resources fund 2010 876 kkr infrastructure fund 2011 1 043 kkr north america fund xi 2012 8 718 kkr asian fund ii 2013 5 825 kkr real estate partners americas 2013 1 226 kkr energy income and growth fund 2013 1 974 source sec filings 12 kkr financial edit type public company nyse kfn founded 2004 website www.kkrfinancial.com kkr financial nyse kfn is a real estate investment trust reit and specialty finance company that invests in residential and commercial mortgage loans and mortgage backed securities as well as corporate loans and debt securities asset backed securities and equity securities . kfn was founded in 2004 raising 795 million in a private placement and raised 849 million in a june 2005 initial public offering increasing the size of the offering from an original 600 million target . 13 kkr had initially considered structuring kfn as a business development company like apollo management s apollo investment corporation but chose to pursue the reit structure to capitalize on the strength in reit valuations at the time . 13 kfn was an early casualty of the subprime mortgage crisis and in september 2007 henry kravis and george roberts injected 270 million into the company . on february 20 2008 kfn was once again forced to delay the repayment of billions of dollars of commercial paper and began a new round of talks with creditors . 14 in april kfn sold a controlling interest in a real estate subsidiary to an investment firm to raise cash and entered an agreement with the noteholders of certain secured commercial paper issued by two asset backed entities . following the transaction kfn converted from a reit to a llc . 15 kkr private equity investors edit type public company euronext kpe founded 2006 website www.kkrpei.com kkr private equity investors euronext kpe is a publicly traded private equity fund that invests as a fund of funds in kkr private equity funds . kpe also co invests in transactions alongside kkr s private equity funds . kpe was founded in 2006 . in may 2006 kkr raised 5 billion in an initial public offering for a kpe to serve as a new permanent investment vehicle listing it on the euronext exchange in amsterdam . kkr raised three times more than it expected as many of the investors in kpe were hedge funds seeking exposure to private equity but could not make long term commitments to private equity funds . as private equity had been booming in preceding years investing in a kkr fund was attractive to investors . 16 however kpe s first day performance was lackluster trading down 1.7 % and trading volume was limited . 17 initially a handful of other private equity firms and hedge funds had planned to follow kkr s lead but shelved those plans when kpe s performance continued to falter after its ipo . kpe s stock declined from an ipo price of 25 per share to 18.16 a 27 % decline at the end of 2007 and a low of 11.45 a 54.2 % decline per share in q1 2008 . 18 kpe disclosed in may 2008 that it had completed approximately 300 million of secondary sales of selected limited partnership interests in and undrawn commitments to certain kkr managed funds in order to generate liquidity and repay borrowings . 19 in october 2009 kpe changed its name to kkr & co. guernsey l.p. 20 which was delisted from euronext amsterdam in july 2010 while common units of kkr & co. l.p. began trading on the new york stock exchange under the symbol kkr . 21 history edit history of private equity and venture capital early history origins of modern private equity the 1980s leveraged buyout boom the 1990s leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble the 2000s dot com bubble to the credit crunch v t e founding and early history edit running the corporate finance department for bear stearns in the 1960s and 1970s jerome kohlberg and later with prot g s henry kravis and george roberts completed a series of what they described as bootstrap investments beginning in 1964 65 . they targeted family owned businesses many of which had been founded in the years following world war ii which by the 1960s and 1970s were facing succession issues . many of these companies lacked a viable or attractive exit for their founders as they were too small to be taken public and the founders were reluctant to sell out to competitors and so a sale to a financial buyer could prove attractive . 3 henry kravis speaking at the world economic forum in 2009 their acquisition of orkin exterminating company in 1964 is among the first significant leveraged buyout transactions . in the following years the three bear stearns bankers would complete a series of buyouts including stern metals 1965 incom a division of rockwood international 1971 cobblers industries 1971 and boren clay 1973 as well as thompson wire eagle motors and barrows through their investment in stern metals . despite a number of highly successful investments the 27 million investment in cobblers ended in bankruptcy . 22 by 1976 tensions clarification needed had built up between bear stearns and kohlberg kravis and roberts which led to the formation of kohlberg kravis roberts & co. in that year . most notably bear stearns executive cy lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated investment fund within bear stearns and lewis took exception to the amount of time spent on outside activities . in 1976 kravis had been required to serve as interim ceo of a failing direct mail company named advo . citation needed the new kkr completed its first buyout that of manufacturer a.j. industries in 1977 . kkr raised capital from a small group of investors including the hillman company and first chicago bank . by 1978 with the revision of the erisa regulations the nascent kkr was successful in raising its first institutional fund with over 30 million of investor commitments . 23 in 1981 kkr expanded its investor base significantly when the oregon state treasury s public pension fund invested in kkr s acquisition of retailer fred meyer inc. oregon state remains an active investor in kkr funds . 3 kkr closed out the 1970s completing the public to private buyout of houdaille industries in 1979 24 probably the largest take private of a public company to that point . as the 1980s began kkr was among the most prominent practitioner of leveraged buyouts and would prove the most prolific of the private equity investors in the 1980s . 3 among the firm s most notable acquisitions during the 1980s buyout boom were the following investment year company