KKR's flagship fund attracts $400 mn from NPS, Korea Post

KKR & Co. has attracted a combined $400 million from the National Pension Service and Korea Post for its latest flagship fund that raised $18.5 billion at its final close.

The NPS has committed $300 million and Korea Post $100 million to KKR North America Fund XIII, according to investment banking sources on May 21. It is the US investment firm's largest buyout fund since its $17.6 billion fund launched in 2006. 

Its two prior funds focused on North America -- the $13.9 billion KKR Americas XII and the $9 billion KKR North America Fund XI -- had returned 1.42 times and 2.08 times their investors’ money, respectively, as of September, according to a Reuters report.

In January this year, KKR Asia Real Estate Partners had raised around $400 million from the NPS and a few other Korean institutional investors. The fund made its final close at $1.7 billion for opportunistic investments.

Almost simultaneously, KKR Asia Pacific Infrastructure Investors had received $130 million in commitments from the Korean Teachers' Credit Union and other Korean firms. The US buyout firm's inaugural Asia infrastructure fund wrapped up its fundraising at $3.9 billion in January.

Write to Jun-ho Cha and Jung-hwan Hwang at chacha@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.