KKR

  • 11 May 2009 at 11:40 AM

Bottom Line In The Sand

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dubai-lagoon.jpgThe timing seems unusual, what with Dubai’s burdensome debt load (think whole number multiples of GDP) the collapse of construction, abysmal human rights conditions for workers (stolen passports, indentured servitude) and increasingly obvious issues with the Dubai judicial system. Dubai poses as a western-friendly jurisdiction, but it is anything but when expats fall to the wrong side of the fence. This in an economy that is slave to foreign investment, tourism and external expertise. Into this gauntlet, rides KKR:

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.’s newly formed KKR MENA Ltd. has been granted a license by the Dubai Financial Services Authority to operate from the Dubai International Financial Centre.
KKR MENA is being run by Makram Azar, who is no stranger to the region. During his 18 years at Lehman Brothers Inc., Azar led the media, consumer and retail investment banking businesses in Europe and the Middle East, then was promoted to global head of sovereign wealth funds and chairman of media investment banking for Europe and the Middle East, based in Dubai. He joined KKR last September.

Best of luck, guys.
KKR sets up in Dubai [The Deal]

  • 03 Nov 2008 at 10:40 AM

Just Not Quick Enough On The Trigger

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I fear I have bad tidings, everyone. KKR’s much anticipated IPO is… delayed. It brings me great sadness to bring you the news. Truly. If nothing else, we were really looking forward to the speculation that was sure to swirl around the details of the IPO party. But then, KKR has been two steps behind on one level or another since… oh… 1988.
KKR delays public listing [CNNMoney.com] (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little).

  • 08 Sep 2008 at 1:34 PM

The Only Thing Worse Than A Backhanded Compliment Is A Crabhanded One

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LAST month, as Henry R. Kravis, the co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, and his wife, Marie-Josée, took their seats at the Water Cube in Beijing for a session of synchronized diving at the Olympics, they quickly recognized a couple sitting nearby: Stephen A. Schwarzman, the co-founder of the Blackstone Group, and his wife, Christine Hearst.
For a brief moment, there was an awkward pause as the longtime rivals took stock of each other. Then both men cracked smiles, and Mr. Schwarzman extended his hand, congratulating Mr. Kravis on his latest move: an attempt to take K.K.R. public despite a stock market mired in uncertainty and fear.

What Does Henry Kravis Want? [NYT via City File]

Union Activists Plan Protests Against KKR

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Union activists plan to demonstrate outside of the New York headquarters of private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co today, calling for higher taxes on buyout firms, better treatment of workers and more attention to environmental concerns.
The protest will be the latest in a series of protests that have been organized against private equity. Ironically, even as unions and other special interests have taken aim at private equity, the private equity business has been in a slump itself. Private equity deal flow is down 70% this year. New commitments to buyout funds are harder to come by. Banks, reeling from credit market losses, are hesitant to provide financing for deals. An even deeper irony is that private equity firms often rely on union dominated pension funds to invest in their buyout funds.
Today’s protests are being organized by the Service Employees International Union, with help from MoveOn.org. The SEIU were the folks who staged the protest in Philadelphia that interrupted a speech by the Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein. As part of what the organizers are calling an international “day of action,” similar protests are planned today in 25 different countries.