Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co suffered a loss of almost $1.2 billion in 2008, according to an investor presentation given by the firm on Sunday.
The loss of $1.195 billion before taxes is a huge drop on last year’s pre-tax economic net income of $815 million and represents the firm’s first loss in five years.
According to the presentation, five of KKR’s biggest investments, including UK pharmacy chain Alliance Boots and US-based information technology company First Data, are now valued at less than what the firm originally paid for them.
From 2007 to 2008 the firm’s assets under management fell from $53.2 billion to $48.5 billion, and in Q1 2009 shrank further to $47.3 billion. The firm still has $15.4 billion of uninvested capital available across three geographic funds: Europe, the US and Asia.
KKR recently acquired the Seoul-based Oriental Brewery for $1.8 billion and provided some of the financing for Alliance Boots to buy back 400 million ($663 million) of its debt.
D.C.