KKR announces the close of $2.1 billion Asset-Based Finance Fund

Global investment firm KKR announced on Wednesday the final close of KKR Asset-Based Finance Partners, its first fund dedicated to asset-based finance investments.

The $2.1 billion fund will commit capital internationally to privately originated and negotiated credit investments that are backed by large and diversified pools of financial and hard assets, KKR said.

KKR Asset-Based Finance Partners has been strongly supported by a diverse group of new and existing investors, including public and corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, commercial banks, insurance companies, asset managers and family offices.

“The $4.5 trillion ABF market is one of the most compelling and fastest-growing opportunities within our private credit business today,” Dan Pietrzak and Matthieu Boulanger, Partners and Co-Heads of Private Credit at KKR, said in a press release.

“At the same time, investors are increasingly looking for solutions that can deliver collateral-based cash flows with attractive yield and downside protection in today’s highly volatile and inflationary environment. We are seeing growing recognition of ABF as a standalone asset class that can deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns. Through the close of ABFP, we are pleased to play a leading role in meeting this demand while also serving the financing needs of consumers and businesses globally.”

“Demand has been driven by global bank deleveraging, the need for fast and sophisticated credit solutions and the inability of traditional capital to provide them. We believe that the global footprint and breadth of our ABF strategy positions us well to serve this need and to source differentiated opportunities with compelling risk-adjusted returns,” Avi Korn, Chris Mellia and Varun Khanna, Managing Directors overseeing the ABF investment strategy at KKR, said.