KKR & Co. reported $601 billion in assets under management as of June 30, up 4% from the end of the first quarter and up 16% year over year, buoyed by the second-highest quarter for fundraising in KKR’s history.
KKR raised $32 billion in the quarter and $108 billion in the 12 months that ended June 30. KKR expects to raise $300 billion of new capital in 2024 through 2026. Fundraising included its new middle-market private equity Ascendant Fund, which has already hit its $4 billion fundraising goal and has not held its final close yet, Robert H. Lewin, KKR’s CFO, said during an earnings call Wednesday.
KKR raised a total of $63 billion in the first half of this year, up from $24 billion raised in the first half of 2023.
KKR executives reported kicking off what they call the “fundraising supercycle,” starting with the firm's Americas private equity flagship fundraise in June. However, KKR executives said its flagship funds are not as impactful as they once were.
“I know there tends to be a lot of focus on the flagship funds. But if you go back and think about what's been going on with the firm, even go back to beginning of 2022, … we raised $214 billion, only $14 billion of the $214 [billion] was in flagships,” Scott C. Nuttall, co-CEO of KKR, said in response to an analyst’s question during the earnings call.
“So, happy to chat about the flagships,” he said. “But we should also keep in mind the vast majority of the activity that we've been generating has been outside of that.”
KKR’s largest business by assets under management was credit and liquid strategies with $264.5 billion in assets under management as of June 30, up 2% from $259.5 billion in the first quarter and up 17% from $227 billion at the end of the year-earlier quarter.
Private equity had $185.3 billion in assets under management at the end of the second quarter, up 1% from $182.8 billion in the prior quarter and up 9% from $170.1 billion year over year. Real assets had $151.5 billion as of June 30, up 12% from $135.4 billion at the end of the first quarter and up 25% from $121.6 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2023.
KKR has owned 100% of insurer General Atlantic since the first quarter. General Atlantic had $183 billion in assets under management as of June 30, of which $139 billion is credit assets.