Private Equity · Profile from Private Equity Research Companion
KKR & Co. Inc. (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts)
The firm that invented the modern leveraged buyout, built the template for the "barbarian" mega-deal of the 1980s, and then reinvented itself into a ~$700bn-scale, publicly listed, insurance-backed alternative asset manager.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1 May 1976, New York
- Founders
- Jerome Kohlberg Jr., Henry R. Kravis, George R. Roberts
- Headquarters
- New York (Hudson Yards); major offices in Menlo Park/San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Mumbai and ~20 others
- Ownership / listing
- NYSE: KKR (listed July 2010; converted to C-corp July 2018; S&P 500 member since June 2024)
- Leadership (2026)
- Co-CEOs Joseph Bae and Scott Nuttall (since Oct 2021); Co-Executive Chairmen Henry Kravis and George Roberts
- AUM
- ~$686bn reported mid-2025; roughly $700bn+ scale by 2026 (incl. Global Atlantic insurance assets)
- Signature deals
- Houdaille (1979), Beatrice (1986), RJR Nabisco (1989), HCA (2006), TXU (2007), First Data (2007), Dollar General (2007)
17 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1979
Houdaille Industries
Public-to-Private Leveraged Buyout
1986
Beatrice Companies
Mega-LBO and Breakup
1986
Safeway Stores
Defensive Take-Private
1988
Duracell
Corporate Carve-Out
1989
RJR Nabisco
Contested Mega Take-Private
1995
Borden
Stock-Swap Take-Private of a Troubled Conglomerate
2005
Toys R Us
Club Take-Private
2006
HCA
Club Take-Private
2007
Alliance Boots
UK FTSE-100 Take-Private
2007
Dollar General
Take-Private
2007
First Data
Take-Private
2007
TXU Energy Future Holdings
Largest LBO Ever
2013
Gardner Denver
Take-Private with Broad-Based Employee Ownership
2018
BMC Software
Secondary Buyout of Enterprise Software
2018
Envision Healthcare
Take-Private
2021
Global Atlantic
Strategic Acquisition of an Insurer
2024
Telecom Italia NetCo
Infrastructure Carve-Out