Kohlberg Kravis Roberts

Several days later, Kravis, who had originally suggested the buyout to Johnson, presented a new bid for $20.3 billion ($90 per share) financed with Kravis' own aggressive debt package. KKR had the support of equity co-investments from pension funds and other institutional investors, including Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and United Technologies corporate pension funds, as well as endowments from MIT, Harvard and the New York State Common Retirement Fund. However, KKR faced criticism from existing investors over the firm's use of a hostile takeover in the buyout of RJR.

KKR proposed to provide a joint offer with Johnson and Shearson Lehman but was rebuffed and Johnson attempted to stonewall KKR's access to financial information from RJR. Rival private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. was invited into the process by Shearson Lehman, and attempted to provide a bid for RJR with a consortium of Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Procter & Gamble, Ralston Purina and Castle & Cooke. Ultimately, the Forstmann consortium came apart and did not provide a final bid for RJR.

In November 1988, RJR set guidelines for a final bid submission at the end of the month. The management and Shearson group submitted a final bid of $112, a figure they felt certain would enable them to outflank any response by Kravis and KKR. KKR's final bid of $109, while a lower dollar figure, was ultimately accepted by the board of directors of RJR Nabisco. KKR's offer was guaranteed, whereas the management offer lacked a "reset", meaning that the final share price might have been lower than their stated $112 per share.

Additionally, many in RJR's board of directors were concerned about disclosures of Ross Johnson's unprecedented golden parachute deal. Time magazine featured Johnson on the cover of its December 5, 1988 issue along with the headline, "A Game of Greed: This man could pocket $100 million from the largest corporate takeover in history. Has the buyout craze gone too far?". KKR's offer was welcomed by the board, and, to some observers, it appeared that the elevation of the reset issue as a deal-breaker in KKR's favor was little more than an excuse to reject Johnson's higher bid of $112 per share. Johnson received $53 million from the buyout. KKR collected a $75 million fee in the RJR takeover. At $31.1 billion of а transaction value including assumed debt, RJR Nabisco was, at the time, by far the largest leveraged buyout in history.

Early 1990s: The aftermath of RJR Nabisco

The buyout of RJR Nabisco was completed in April 1989 and KKR spent the early 1990s repaying the debt load through asset sales and restructuring transactions. KKR did not complete a single investment in 1990, the first such year since 1982. KKR began to focus primarily on its existing portfolio companies acquired during the buyout boom of the late 1980s. Six of KKR's portfolio companies completed IPOs in 1991, including RJR Nabisco and Duracell.

In January 1990, KKR completed the sale of RJR's Del Monte Foods to a group led by Merrill Lynch. KKR had originally identified a group of divisions that it could sell to reduce debt.

KKR contributed $1.7 billion of new equity into RJR in July 1990 to complete a restructuring of the company's balance sheet. KKR's equity contribution as part of the original leveraged buyout of RJR had been only $1.5 billion. In December 1990, RJR announced an exchange offer to swap debt in RJR for a new public stock in the company, effectively an unusual means of an initial public offering and simultaneously reducing debt on the company.

RJR issued additional stock to the public in March 1991 to reduce debt further, resulting in an upgrade of the credit rating of RJR's debt from junk to investment grade. KKR began to reduce its ownership in RJR in 1994, when its stock in RJR was used as part of the consideration for its leveraged buyout of Borden, a producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. In 1995, KKR divested itself of its final stake in RJR Nabisco when Borden sold a $638 million block of stock.

While KKR no longer had any ownership of RJR Nabisco by 1995, its original investment was not be fully realized until KKR exited its last investment in 2004. After sixteen years of efforts, including contributing new equity, an IPO, asset sales, and exchanging shares of RJR for the ownership of Borden, KKR finally sold the last remnants of its 1989 investment. In July 2004, KKR agreed to sell its stock in Borden Chemical to Apollo Management for $1.2 billion.

Early 1990s: Investments

In the early 1990s, the absence of an active high yield market prompted KKR to change its tactics, avoiding large leveraged buyouts in favor of industry consolidations through what was described as leveraged buildups or rollups. One of KKR's largest investments in the 1990s was the leveraged buildup of Primedia (now Rent Group) in partnership with former executives of Macmillan Publishing, which KKR had failed to acquire in 1988. KKR created K-III Communications (now Rent Group), a platform to buy media properties, initially completing the $310 million divisional buyout of the book club division of Macmillan along with the assets of Intertec Publishing Corporation in May 1989.

During the early 1990s, K-III continued acquiring publishing assets, including a $650 million acquisition from News Corporation in 1991. K-III went public, however instead of cashing out, KKR continued to make new investments in the company in 1998, 2000 and 2001 to support acquisition activity. In 2005, Primedia redeemed KKR's preferred stock in the company but KKR was estimated to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on its common stock holdings as the price of the company's stock collapsed.

In 1991, KKR partnered with Fleet/Norstar Financial Group in the 1991 acquisition of the Bank of New England, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In January 1996, KKR exchanged its investment for a 7.5% interest in Fleet Bank. In 1992, KKR completed the buyout of American Re Corporation from Aetna as well as a 47% interest in TW Corporation, later known as The Flagstar Companies and owner of Denny's. Among the other notable investments KKR completed in the early 1990s included World Color Press (1993–95), RELTEC Corporation (1995) and Bruno's (1995).

1996–1999

By the mid-1990s, the debt markets were improving and KKR had moved on from the RJR Nabisco buyout. In 1996, KKR was able to complete the bulk of fundraising for what was then a record $6 billion private equity fund, the KKR 1996 Fund. However, KKR was still burdened by the performance of the RJR investment and repeated obituaries in the media. KKR was required by its investors to reduce the fees it charged and to calculate its carried interest based on the total profit of the fund (i.e., offsetting losses from failed deals against the profits from successful deals).

KKR acquired Spalding Holdings Corporation and Evenflo in August 1996, Newsquest in January 1996, KinderCare Learning Centers in October 1996, Amphenol Corporation in January 1997, Randalls Food Markets in June 1997, MedCath Corporation in March 1998, The Boyds Collection in April 1998, Willis Group Holdings in July 1998, and Wincor Nixdorf in October 1999.

KKR's largest investment of the 1990s was one of its least successful. In January 1998, KKR and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst agreed to the $1.5 billion buyouts of Regal Entertainment Group. KKR and Hicks Muse had initially intended to combine Regal with Act III Cinemas, which KKR had acquired in 1997 for $706 million and United Artists Theaters, which Hicks Muse had agreed to acquire for $840 million in November 1997. Shortly after agreeing to the Regal takeover, the deal with United Artists fell apart and the company was not able to scale up. In 2000, Regal encountered significant financial issues and filed bankruptcy protection and was acquired by Philip Anschutz.

2000–2005

Losses on such investments as Regal Entertainment Group, Spalding, Flagstar and K-III Communications (now Rent Group) were offset by successes in Willis Group, Wise Foods, Inc., Wincor Nixdorf and MTU Aero Engines, among others. The end of dot-com bubble affected buyout deals.

In November 1999, KKR acquired Shoppers Drug Mart. KKR was able to realize its investment in Shoppers Drug Mart through a 2002 IPO and subsequent public stock offerings.

In November 2002, KKR acquired Bell Canada Yellow Pages. In May 2004, directories business was sold in an initial public offering as Yellow Pages Income Fund, a Canadian income trust.

In 2004, in a club deal and one of the largest buyouts in years, KKR, Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust acquired Toys "R" Us for $6.6 billion after outbidding Cerberus Capital Management, which offered $5.5 billion.

In 2005, KKR partnered with Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Blackstone, Providence Equity Partners, and TPG Capital to acquire SunGard for $11.3 billion. This represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988. SunGard was the largest buyout of a technology company until the buyout of Freescale Semiconductor by affiliates of Blackstone. The SunGard transaction was notable given the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largest club deal completed to that point. The involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross-holdings among firms to be generally unattractive.

Buyout boom (2006–2007)

In 2006, KKR raised $17.6 billion for the KKR 2006 Fund, with which the firm began executing a series of some of the largest buyouts in history. KKR's $44 billion takeover of Texas-based power utility TXU Energy in 2007 was the largest leveraged buyout of private equity in the 21st century and the largest buyout completed to date. Among the most notable companies acquired by KKR in 2006 and 2007 were the following:

KKR acquired a 40% stake in Longview Power Plant in 2006; it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020.

In October 2006, KKR acquired a 50% stake in Tarkett, a France-based distributor of flooring products, in a deal valued at about €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion).

In November 2006, KKR formed a A$4 billion partnership with the Seven Network of Australia.

In January 2007, KKR invested $700 million through a private investment in public equity in Sun Microsystems.

In January 2008, KKR made a $1.25 billion private investment in public equity in Legg Mason through a convertible preferred stock offering.

On April 26, 2007, Harman International Industries entered an agreement to be acquired by KKR and Goldman Sachs Alternatives for $8 billion. However, in September 2007, the agreement was terminated after a drop in earnings at Harmon during the Great Recession.

Initial public offering (2007)

In 2007, KKR filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $1.25 billion by selling an ownership interest in its management company. The filing came less than two weeks after the initial public offering of rival private equity firm Blackstone Inc. KKR had previously listed its KPE vehicle in 2006, but for the first time, KKR offered investors an ownership interest in the private equity firm itself. The onset of the credit crunch and the weak IPO market dampened the prospects of obtaining a valuation attractive to KKR. The flotation was repeatedly postponed and called off by the end of August.

In July 2008, KKR announced a reverse takeover of its listed affiliate KKR Private Equity Investors in exchange for a 21% interest in the firm to become a public company. In November 2008, the transaction was delayed until 2009. Shares of KPE had declined significantly in the second half of 2008 due to the 2008 financial crisis.

In October 2009, KKR listed shares in KKR & Co. on the Euronext exchange.

In March 2010, KKR filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Trading commenced on July 15, 2010.

2010–2019

In December 2011, Samson Investment Company was acquired by a group of private equity investors led by KKR for approximately $7.2 billion and Samson Resources Corporation was formed. With the severe downturn in oil and natural gas prices, in September 2015, Samson filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and during its bankruptcy process, sold several large assets.

In March 2013, a year after making her first retail real-estate investment in Illinois' Yorktown Center, it sold its 51% stake in BMG Rights Management to Bertelsmann. In January 2014, KKR acquired Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc for $2.4 billion from two private equity companies - Stone Point, and Hellman & Friedman.

In June 2014, KKR acquired a one-third stake in Spanish energy business Acciona Energy, at a cost of €417 million ($567 million). The international renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets, largely wind farms, across 14 countries including the United States, Italy and South Africa.

In August, KKR invested $400 million for 18% of Fujian Sunner Development, China's largest chicken farmer, which breeds, processes and supplies frozen and fresh chickens to consumers and corporate clients, such as KFC and McDonald's, across China. In September, the firm invested $90 million in lighting and electrics firm Savant Systems.

Also in 2014, KKR acquired commercial landscaping company ValleyCrest from Michael Dell's investment firm MSD Capital, and combined it with landscape company Brickman, which it had owned since 2013, to form BrightView. The following year, in addition to acquiring Exponent's British rail ticket website Trainline, KKR bought a majority stake in Selecta Group, a European vending services operator, from Allianz Capital Partners.

In 2016, KKR purchased two Hispanic grocery chains, Northern California Mi Pueblo and Ontario, California–based Cardenas. In February, seven months before acquiring US software company Epicor, KKR invested $75 million in commercial real estate lender A10 Capital.

In October, it invested $250 million in OVH to be used for further international expansion; this funding round valued OVH at over $1 billion, making it a unicorn. In December, the firm sold Capsugel for $5.5 billion to the Lonza Group.

In March 2017, KKR partnered with a fund linked to Dell to acquire GfK. In August, a month after acquiring WebMD for $2.8 billion KKR acquired PharMerica for $1.4 billion including debt, Pepper Group Limited for $518 million, Covenant Surgical Partners, and Envision Healthcare Corporation's ambulance business (American Medical Response) for $2.4 billion.

In September, two months after KKR merged Mi Pueblo and Cardenas Market, Toys "R" Us, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating the move would give it flexibility to deal with $5 billion in long-term debt, borrow $2 billion so it would be able to pay suppliers for the upcoming holiday season and invest in improving current operations.

During 2017, KKR purchased an 80% stake in Dixon Hospitality Group for A$190 million, renaming it Australian Venue Co. (AVC); it was expanded and then sold for US$900 million in 2023.

In July 2018, while acquiringRBMedia, one of the largest independent publishers and distributors of audiobooks and Taipei-based LCY Chemical for NT$47.8 billion ($1.56 billion US), the company sold Gallagher Shopping Park in the West Midlands to Hana Financial Group for £175 million.

In February 2019, KKR acquired Brightsprings, and in a 2022 letter from four U.S. senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Joseph Bae and Scott Nutall were asked to explain the substandard care since the acquisition. In the same month, it acquired Tele München Gruppe and the German film distributor Universum Film GmbH.

In April, three months before buying Corel, it acquired German film production company Wiedemann & Berg Film Production. In August, KKR acquired Arnott's Biscuits, the Australian snack unit of Campbell's, for $2.2 billion.

Also in August, KKR became the biggest shareholder of German media group Axel Springer SE, paying $3.2 billion for a 43.54% stake. Later that month, the firm also acquired a majority stake in Heidelpay from AnaCap Financial Partners for more than €600 million.

In December, KKR, together with Alberta Investment Management Corporation, acquired a 65% stake in the controversial Coastal GasLink Pipeline project from TC Energy.