Gillian Tan, Columnist

KKR: Either a Borrower or Lender Be

The firm's blowout second-quarter got an assist from its capital-markets business, where it's gone largely unchallenged by its key rivals.

July 27, 2017 at 2:07 PM UTC

By Gillian Tan

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

1501166547_GettyImages-1321427 (1) — Photographer: Joe Raedle/Newsmakers via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

KKR & Co. on Thursday delivered Wall Street-estimate-beating second-quarter profit that upstaged its much larger rival, Blackstone Group LP. One part of the firm that played a handy role in its blowout quarter? Its capital markets arm, which mainly arranges debt and equity transactions for the companies owned by KKR's private equity funds:

KKR Capital Markets's biggest client is, unsurprisingly, KKR. But it's heartening to see that 28 percent of its fees come from third parties (most likely other private equity firms and the companies they own), a figure that may continue to climb.