Record pay-outs from Carlyle and KKR

[Snellius]

Carlyle and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts have returned a combined $15.6bn of cash to investors in the past 18 months, two of the biggest pay-outs in the history of private equity.

Carlyle's pay-out of $6.6bn - a record for the group - demonstrates that buy-out firms can successfully invest large amounts of capital, in spite of scepticism that high returns will be tough to maintain as fund sizes grow.
...
In a wide-ranging interview Mr Conway addressed Carlyle's business model as well as its growing recognition outside the private equity world because of references in recent films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Manchurian Candidate re-make.

He said the firm's recruitment of former political heavyweights, which earned Carlyle a reputation for being well-connected with governments, had been of "virtually no advantage" when it came to making investments.

Carlyle is now raising a $5bn US buy-out fund, the largest in its history. It has invested in more than 330 companies over the past 20 years, writing equity cheques worth more than $11.1bn for deals worth $37bn.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b0e0ae6c-2210-11d9-8c55-00000e2511c8.html

[elehhhhna]

1. NO wonder GW called the Arabs "Moolahs" .

[cthrumatrix]

2. I wonder how much their equities rose with thier war investments?

[Nihil]

3. Who says crime doesn't pay?

Anyone who does is wrong ...

The rule is now "Large-scale global crime pays very well thank you".

[prayin4rain]

4. Oh god I wish I hadn't even seen this, This stuff just makes me sick.

I cannot stand it.

[truthisfreedom]

5. so where is the article that explains carlyle's tactics of manipulating

the military to destroy companies that manufacture defense products, then buy them for pennies on the dollar, and then resurrect them to sell them off by further manipulation?

[MisterP]

19. kick for the Chimpire

[Rose Siding]

6. "It's the best 18 months we ever had"

Well, that's just screwy ain't it? You can almost intuit an upcoming Krugman article.

Bill Conway, Carlyle founder and chief investment officer, said conditions were ripe for Carlyle to realise some of its investments. "It's the best 18 months we ever had," Mr Conway said. "We made money and we made it fast."

I wonder if some of that buy-out money was used to scoop up govt bonds that foreign investors weren't into this month?

[Rose Siding]

7. kick

[lostnfound]

10. kick nt

[saigon68]

16. kick

[amandabeech]

8. I actually knew one of the KKR'ers in college.

The guy was unbelievably smart. I ran into him in Manhattan back in the '80s, and we went to get a cup of coffee. He was in a rather introspective mood, and admitted that neither of us (I used to be a corporate lawyer) was doing anything useful. He mentioned a friend of his that I knew who has a Ph.D. in an engineering discipline as someone who was doing something useful.

I wonder if he still thinks about his uselessness, or whether he's managed to shove that back into some forgotten corner of his mind.

He could do a lot of good in the world if he put his mind to it.

[saigon68]

9. I'm sure they are all sleeping happily tonight

On their "heated waterbeds"

[lostnfound]

11. Too bad he isn't unbelievably ethical? :-(

I'm sure that kind of money is tempting.

[amandabeech]

13. Actually, I've had the pleasure of working with really sleazy

people. The KKR guy is just a typical business type, but much, much smarter. The only person I have known who is smarter is someone who won a MacArthur fellowship.

[jmowreader]

12. Two totally different companies

And I note that almost all of this piece is about Carlyle, and (except for the part about the money) none of it is about KKR.

If I had a billion dollars, and I absolutely had to invest it with one of these two groups, I'd put it with Henry Kravis and KKR. Look at their portfolios and you'll see why. Carlyle's portfolio looks like a bad Bobcat Goldthwait joke...war, war, war. KKR is extremely diversified.

[Turley]

14. You must be kidding

Carlyle's portfolio looks like a bad joke? I wish I was doing as well. I also don't think they're <i>that</i> heavy on defense given their expertise in the sector. I'm guessing less than 10%. Maybe I'll check it out when I get back to my Bberg tomorrow and report back to you.

[jmowreader]

15. Umm...you didn't read the joke

The joke was about the media and what they like to cover..."war, war, war...Nancy and Sluggo!"

Incidentally, you're right--Carlyle's defense portfolio contains fifteen different companies, and they have 275 investments. A lot of their stuff is real estate, so you're probably looking at about 10 percent of their holdings being defense-related.

However, I'd still put my billion on Henry Kravis. His defense portfolio contains zero companies...and while Carlyle paid out six billion, KKR paid out over nine. And no Bushes have ever worked for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Company.

[VegasWolf]

17. Who said bush doesn't know what he is doing?? He has his dumb boy

act down pat while he makes billions off the bodies of
dead Americans. Who said war doesn't pay huge bucks.

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[AlCzervik]

18. that is an astounding amount of money

and it's all private so we wont ever get to see the books.