KKR sitting on $11bn of dry powder

George Roberts, left, and Henry Kravis have a combined $1.65 billion stake in KKR

Private equity giant KKR has $11bn of ‘dry powder’ or uninvested capital, the firm revealed at its first investor day since the firm went public in July.

KKR also said it is keen to broaden its LP base, which currently includes just 350 LPs. Listed rival Blackstone has some 1300, according to Reuters.

The firm, which is still run by founders Henry Kravis, and George Roberts, both born in 1944, downplayed worries about the succession.

“I know a lot of investors ask: ‘What about future leadership? What about succession?’” said Kravis. “I’m not sure why, but they do so.”

Co-founder Jerome Kohlberg, who is twenty years older, resigned from KKR in 1987. Kravis and Roberts, who are cousins, emphasised they intend to continue running the firm for some time yet.

But they said they had a “deep bench” of potential successors. Fifteen different executives spoke at the investor day.

KKR also revealed that its mammoth $18bn fund, raised in 2006, had so far returned a meagre 4.3 per cent, though it beat the S&P 500, which is in the red by 2.3 per cent over the same period.

Recent KKR-backed companies that have gone to IPO include media research agency Nielsen and hospital chain HCA, which raised $3.8bn in the largest private equity backed IPO in US history.