KKR European V closes on €5.8bn

Katharine Hidalgo
05 November 2019

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KKR has closed its fifth European-focused vehicle on тЌ5.8bn.

The fund was registered in Luxembourg in December 2017 with a target of €5bn. It held a first close in November 2018 and an interim close of €4.7bn in April 2019. It has a six-year investment period.

The fund's predecessor, KKR European Fund IV, closed on €3.3bn in 2015 and is now fully deployed across 14 investments. The fund has already realised several assets, including Webhelp, Välinge and Trainline.

The US-based firm has 46 investment professionals and 18 operating and capital markets professionals working in private equity across six European offices.

China International Capital Corporation and Cygnus Capital both acted as placement agents.

Investors
More than 140 investors committed to the fund. By value, 55% of investors came from North and South America, 25% came from Emea and 20% came from Asia. Investors include pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, high net worth individuals, and family offices.

KKR has committed $400m in capital to the fund through the firm's balance sheet and employee commitments.

Public pensions California Public Employees Retirement System, Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System, Minnesota State Board of Investment, New York City Employees' Retirement System, State of Michigan Retirement Systems and Washington State Investment Board have all committed at least €50m to the fund, according to Unquote Data.

Investments
The fund will make investments in Europe with a focus on western European companies in the telecommunications, technology, media, consumer, business and financial services, industrial and healthcare sectors.

The firm focuses on companies with enterprise values of €500m-2bn and its equity cheques range from €150-500m, while it is able to offer larger cheques in some situations.

The fund has already been approximately 30% deployed. It has invested in Axel Springer, Heidelpay and Sector Alarm, according to Unquote Data. It has also made investments in Grupo Alvic and Soderberg & Partners.

People
KKR – Johannes Huth (EMEA head); Alisa Amarosa Wood (head of private market products group).