KKR promotes Keith Kim in Seoul office to partner

KKR & Co. Inc. has promoted Keith Kim (Kim Yang-han), managing director at the private equity giant’s Seoul office, to partner.

Kim, who manages infrastructure investment in the Seoul office, was among eight employees promoted to partner, the PE firm announced earlier this month. The promotions wil take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.  

Kim led KKR’s investment in South Korean energy firm SK E&S Co. via 735 billion won ($567.3 million) in redeemable convertible preferred shares (RCPS) in December 2022. That was a follow-up investment in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and city gas firm via a 2.4 trillion won RCPS structure in late 2021.

He also managed the formation of Ecorbit, a joint venture between KKR and mid-sized conglomerate Taeyoung Group and Korea’s leading waste treatment firm, after the US PE giant acquired a 100% stake in the group’s logistics unit, Taeyoung Industry. 

Kim joined KKR in 2019 as a member of the Asia Pacific infrastructure team. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets in Seoul from 2009, managing transactions in utilities, renewables, power, airports, terminals and security.

Earlier, he served as an analyst at Singapore-based Arisaig Partners for two years from 2006, focusing on the food and beverage, cosmetics, apparel and manufacturing sectors.

Kim earned a master’s degree in finance at INSEAD in 2014 and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2005.

Kim has become one of two partners in the Seoul office, alongside KKR Korea head Park Chung Ho. Park joined KKR in 2009 and has led the PE firm’s investments in Oriental Brewery, Ticket Monster, LS Automotive, KCF Technologies, TSK Corporation and others.

Write to Ji-Eun Ha at hazzys@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.