KKR Fund Breaks Its Own Record: Raised $19.2 Billion
The private equity firm KKR has completed a record-breaking $19.2 billion fundraising for a new infrastructure fund. The capital will be deployed into assets primarily across North America and Western Europe.
The private equity firm KKR announced today (Thursday) that it has completed a massive fundraising of $19.2 billion for a new infrastructure fund, which will invest in assets primarily in North America and Western Europe. This is the highest fundraising amount for a KKR fund.
Capital raising for infrastructure funds has surged in recent years, against the backdrop of growing demand from investors for assets that benefit from trends of transition to clean energy and investments in digital infrastructure, particularly in data centers, in light of the rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence. KKR's infrastructure activity had become one of the largest in the world even before this current fundraising: the fund manages infrastructure assets totaling $120 billion.
In the second quarter, KKR raised a total of $34 billion from investors, mainly thanks to the real estate division, which includes its infrastructure activity. As part of the fund's strategy, it has invested over $70 billion in infrastructure assets in North America and Europe. The new fund — Global Infrastructure Investors V — increases the volume of fundraising it has carried out in its recent infrastructure fund rounds around the world to $45 billion. It will focus on investments in infrastructure that provides essential services, benefits from high barriers to entry, and is expected to generate stable cash flows over time. To date, the fund has already committed to investments totaling more than $9 billion.
"Europe is entering a period where investments in critical infrastructure will play an increasingly important role in supporting competitiveness, energy security, and economic resilience," said Vincent Policard, co-head of KKR's European infrastructure division.
Last week, KKR released strong financial reports for the second quarter, beating analysts' profit forecasts, thanks to an increase in management fee revenues, which stemmed from the growth in the volume of assets it manages. Successful asset realizations also contributed to the results. In March, the Apax fund completed the acquisition of the Yad2 site from KKR for $950 million.
