KKR closes sixth European private equity fund with USD 8.0 billion

New York & London — KKR, a leading global inves­tor, has announ­ced the final closing of Euro­pean Fund VI (the “Fund”). At $8.0 billion, inclu­ding the commit­ment from KKR itself, it is KKR’s largest Euro­pean private equity fund to date, follo­wed by the $6.6 billion fund laun­ched in 2019. The new fund will focus on private equity invest­ments, mainly in econo­mic­ally strong regi­ons of Western Europe.

Phil­ipp Freise Photo (© KKR), Co-Head of Euro­pean Private Equity at KKR, said, “KKR has been inves­t­ing in Europe for nearly 25 years and we believe the oppor­tu­ni­ties are grea­ter today than ever before. We believe the Euro­pean economy offers tremen­dous poten­tial for trans­for­ma­tive invest­ments in the context of struc­tu­ral trends, such as digi­ta­liza­tion, health­care and sustainability.”
Mattia Caprioli, Co-Head of Euro­pean Private Equity at KKR, added: “We look forward to support­ing foun­ders, family busi­nesses and corpo­ra­tes as a stra­te­gic part­ner helping them take their busi­ness to the next level.”

Chris­tian Ollig, Part­ner and Head of DACH at KKR, said: “Since 1999, we have inves­ted more than €15 billion in over 30 long-term orien­ted corpo­rate invest­ments in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The DACH region is a key anchor for KKR in Europe, and our latest fund is a strong demons­tra­tion of our consis­tent commit­ment to the region. We look forward to the oppor­tu­ni­ties presen­ted by working with poten­tial part­ners and the resour­ces of the new fund.”

KKR’s success in Europe is based on a combi­na­tion of a strong local presence and exper­tise and access to a global network and resour­ces. More than 100 employees, inclu­ding 57 Euro­pean private equity execu­ti­ves, 25 members of KKR Capst­one Europe and other experts from KKR Capi­tal Markets, Public Affairs and the EMEA Macro team support the port­fo­lio compa­nies with their in-depth local market exper­tise. The team is repre­sen­ted in over eight diffe­rent Euro­pean offices and brings toge­ther a total of more than 15 Euro­pean natio­na­li­ties. This exper­tise is comple­men­ted by KKR’s global network. This draws on the know­ledge and skills of the KKR Global Insti­tute and KKR’s senior advi­sors, among others.

Alisa Amarosa Wood, Part­ner and Head of Global Private Markets and Real Assets Stra­te­gies Group at KKR, said, “We are plea­sed that our inves­tors share our Euro­pean team’s belief that there are excel­lent invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in Europe. Many inves­tors have chosen not only to reinvest, but also to increase their expo­sure to our Euro­pean busi­ness. The place­ment of this fund in the current market envi­ron­ment demons­tra­tes the strong confi­dence inves­tors have in our Euro­pean team and plat­form, as well as our long track record of deli­ve­ring value and outstan­ding results.”

Through the fund, KKR will conti­nue to invest along­side family owners, foun­ders, entre­pre­neurs and compa­nies, provi­ding flexi­ble capi­tal for stra­te­gic part­ner­ships, plat­form expan­sion and carve-outs. In addi­tion to inves­tors, KKR itself will make a signi­fi­cant invest­ment in the fund, inves­t­ing a total of more than $1 billion in balance sheet funds and employee stock options.

KKR’s Euro­pean private equity plat­form curr­ently mana­ges total assets of $28.3 billion1 and is part of its $165 billion global private equity busi­ness. The current port­fo­lio includes invest­ments in over 45 compa­nies in Western Europe.

Debe­voise & Plimp­ton LLP acted as primary legal coun­sel to KKR in the fund­rai­sing process.

About KKR 

KKR is a leading global inves­tor provi­ding alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, capi­tal markets and insu­rance solu­ti­ons. The focus is on gene­ra­ting attrac­tive invest­ment returns through a long-term and disci­pli­ned invest­ment approach, employ­ing highly skil­led profes­sio­nals and support­ing growth at its invest­ment proper­ties and in the commu­ni­ties where KKR has a presence. KKR finan­ces funds that invest in private equity, credit products, real assets, and — through stra­te­gic part­ners — hedge funds.