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Bloomberg
KKR & Co. passed $500 billion in assets under management during the fourth quarter even as earnings fell 41% on sluggish asset sales.
The New York-based firm raised $16 billion of new capital in the quarter to reach $504 billion in AUM, it said in a statement. Distributable earnings fell to $822 million, or 92 cents a share, from $1.4 billion, or $1.59, a year earlier. That beat the 85-cent average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
“On the back of strong investment performance, we had our second-best fundraising year ever, helping double our AUM over the last two years to $500 billion,†Co-Chief Executive Officers Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall said in the statement. “We feel incredibly well-positioned for this environment with over $100 billion of dry powder ready to deploy.â€
Private equity grew rapidly during an era of low interest rates, driven by pensions and endowments looking for higher returns. But institutional investors are limited in their ability to invest more into the asset class and high interest rates have crimped the borrowing that greases deals.