KKR closes US$9.3 billion Asian Fund

PRIVATE equity firm KKR has raised US$9.3 billion for its third Asian fund, it announced on Friday.

Ming Lu, KKR member and head of Asia (private equity), said: "We see a diverse set of opportunities across Asia-Pacific stemming from rising consumption and urbanisation trends in key markets as well as larger carve-out and cross-border transactions in countries such as Japan."

For its third fund, KKR attracted new and existing global investors, including public and corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices and high net worth individual investors, it highlighted.

Together with this fund, KKR's private equity business manages over US$68 billion in assets worldwide.

It raised US$6 billion in its second Asian fund, the proceeds of which have now been fully deployed. That generated a gross internal rate of return (IRR) of 29.1 per cent and net IRR of 20.6 per cent, respectively, as of March 31 this year.