Wall Street Folly

• Bernie Madoff, the $19B Con, Makes New Friends Behind Bars
• Buyout Pioneer Kravis Aims to Remake KKR Like Buffett
• Goldman Sachs Bars Cash Bonus for Top Officers
• Goldman Sachs Stock Bonus Plan to Defer Compensation Expense
• UK: Revenue to clarify bonus rules
• UK: Lawyers search for loopholes in supertax
• Moody’s Analyst: No Threat To US, UK Triple-A Ratings Now
• Ex-UBS Banker, Swiss Lawyer Declared U.S. Fugitives Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bernie Madoff, Bonuses, Compensation, Goldman Sachs, Henry Kravis, KKR, Moody's, ponzi schemes, prison, scammers, Taxes

• Bear Managers Cioffi, Tannin Rest, Won’t Testify
• Raj Rajaratnam Said to Keep Personal Investments in Sri Lanka
• KKR — a Q&A With Pioneers in M&A
• Dollar May Gain 10% Against Euro, Faber Says Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bear Stearns, Galleon, Hedge funds, Henry Kravis, KKR, Legal, Marc Faber, Raj Raratnam

FINalternatives has culled through the Forbes list for all of the alternative investment guys who are represented.  Notably missing: Allen Stanford.  Here's the list:

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Tags: Allen Stanford, Avenue Investments, Bruce Kovner, Carl Icahn, Citadel, DE Shaw, Eddie Lampert, George Soros, Harbinger, Hedge funds, Henry Kravis, Highbridge, Jim Simons, Leon Black, Private equity, SAC Capital, Sam Zell

At least the ones in paintings.  Page Six "Sightings" notes that the KKR boss was seen "intently studying" one of the paintings of a hooker at the Museum of Modern Art’s "Kirchner and the Berlin Street" show of rare 1914 paintings from artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.  The painter focused on the street life in Berlin, and he liked to show ladies of the evening, who you could pick out of the crowd from their big plumed hats.  A far cry from what today’s hookers look like.

Tags: Art, Henry Kravis, Hookers, KKR

We’ve brought you the OfficeMax dancing elves of Wall Street, of Hedge Funds and now we present to you the dancing elves of Private Equity.  Watch Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, KKR’s Henry Kravis, Apollo’s Leon Black and J.C.Flowers & Co’s Christopher Flowers….

Prior Post: The Dancing Hedge Fund Elves

Tags: Apollo, Blackstone, Henry Kravis, Humor, KKR, Leon Black, Private equity

But the reception at Chez Kravis isn’t very warm.  Go figure.

Tags: Hamptons, Henry Kravis, KKR

The new issue of Vanity Fair (October) details the rivalry between Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman and KKR’s Henry Kravis.  A link for the story isn’t up on the web yet, so we’ll have to wait for our copy of VF to arrive, but Page Six provides a tease for the article that describes their one upmanship in business, art, real estate as well as philanthropy.  The animosity started when Steve famously didn’t invite Henry to his now legendary 60th birthday party because Henry had never had him over to his pad for dinner.  And i’s escalated as Kravis blames Schwarzman for making the private equity a congressional target with tax increases possibly in the offing:

IN the battle of the billionaires, Stephen Schwarzman calls Henry Kravis "a
one-trick pony," while Kravis considers Schwarzman "the poster boy for
greed," Vanity Fair reports….

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Tags: Blackstone, Henry Kravis, KKR, Private equity

Even in the face of Blackstone’s abysmally performing IPO, the recent turbulent markets, and the likelihood that continuing credit market problems will lead to compressed profits, KKR is apparently still planning to go forward with their IPO according to an updated SEC filing.  In the same filing, they disclosed that the SEC has asked them for documents in a probe announced last October in an investigation of so-called "club deals", where private equity firms have been alleged to team up, to drive deal prices down.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity
group, yesterday indicated that it was continuing with plans to float, despite
severe losses last week in equity and debt markets and a warning that the credit
crunch may lead to reduced returns for its own investments.

KKR, one of the world’s biggest buyout
firms, also admitted yesterday, as part of amended regulatory filings ahead of
its flotation, that it had received a demand for documents from the antitrust
division of America’s Department of Justice. The firm, which had said in June
that it planned to raise $1.25 billion (£620 million), has still not committed
to a date for a float.

The documents requested form part of the
Department’s inquiry into whether private equity firms colluded over price in
buyouts in the US.

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Tags: Henry Kravis, IPO, KKR, Private equity

Apollo Talks With Arab Fund Barbarians on the Sofa – Has Henry Kravis gone soft? Goldman, JPMorgan out in the cold for second private equity IPO NEWSMAKER-Blackstone’s president faces major test

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Tags: Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Henry Kravis, JPM Chase, KKR, Leon Black, Private equity

The Barbarians are through the gate KKR Files For IPO of $1.25 Billion Buyout firm KKR files to go public Simpson Thacher and Davis Polk steer KKR towards IPO KKR could be valued at more than $15.5bn KKR and Blackstone Jeremy Warner’s Outlook: As KKR floats, are we at the market top?

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Tags: Blackstone, Henry Kravis, IPO, Private equity

MINE’S BIGGER!!!!: As far as paychecks go, Steve Schwarzman holds the bragging rights — and that probably pleases him to no end given that there doesn’t seem to be any love lost with his KKR rival, Henry Kravis:

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., whose
funds control companies with more than $100 billion in annual revenue and
560,000 employees, earned half as much as its largest competitor, Blackstone
Group LP.

Henry Kravis and George Roberts, who
founded the New York- based leveraged-buyout firm 31 years ago, are generating
slower growth because almost all of KKR’s assets are in private-equity funds.
Blackstone, led by Stephen Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson, has 38 percent in
buyout funds after diversifying into hedge funds, real estate and investments in
troubled companies.

“KKR is really a private-equity player,”
said Tilman Trommsdorff, who helps manage $9.9 billion at Partners Group in Zug,
Switzerland. “It’s not as broadly diversified compared to Blackstone.”

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Tags: Blackstone, Hedge funds, Henry Kravis, Private equity

KKR’s Kravis Says No End in Sight for `Golden Era’ of Buyouts Looming Crash Prompts Most Hires for Distressed Debt Since 2002

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR, LBO / MBO, Private equity, Revolving Door

Henry Kravis and George Roberts of KKR will get to show off their all important bowing skills in the next few days.  They’re apparently in Tokyo on what The Times of London calls a "charm offensive" in the hopes of jump starting some investments over there:

The co-founders of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the world’s largest private equity firm, will make a rare public appearance in Tokyo this week in an effort to persuade the Japanese that “venture capital” does not equate to “vulture capital”.

Tomorrow’s visit of Henry Kravis and George Roberts, whose company has yet to make any significant investments in Japan, has triggered market speculation that KKR may be laying the groundwork for its first big acquisition this year.

Other private equity money that has landed in Japan has focused on property, the leisure sector and distressed parts of the finance industry. KKR and others are understood to be eyeing opportunities in the technology, retail and even railway transport sectors. Carlyle Group, Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Permira are believed to be raising large funds to equip themselves for future opportunities in Japan as the buyout market in America and Europe nears maturity.

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR

LBO bubble?  If one exists, buyout king Henry Kravis believes it’s not gonna burst.  He was the keynote speaker at the Committee of 100’s 16th annual conference held at the Waldorf Astoria on Thursday:

"Private equity is here to stay. There will be some hiccups along the way, and the Golden Age won’t last forever, but the bubble is not going to burst,"

"Some deals will get into trouble," said Kravis, who envisioned headlines after the first big buyout goes under. "I can guarantee it will say: ‘The buyout bubble has burst.’"

But if a bad transaction costs a buyout firm even $1 billion, that loss would represent about 2 percent of the value of KKR’s private equity assets and should be kept in prospective, Kravis said.

"That’s not good, believe me, to lose a billion dollars," he added. "But it’s not the end of the world. And the bubble did not burst."

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR, LBO / MBO

Rudy Giuliani’s bid for president might be in trouble before it really even gets off the ground.  A detailed 140 page document outlining his roadmap to the White House was ‘left behind" [*cough*] in one of the cities where Rudy was campaigning for Republican candidates before the November elections.  Included were text, handwriting and spreadsheets, much of it detailing his financing plans which included raising $100 million (with $25 million of that within the next three months alone), as well as issues of concern that could cause him to pull out of the campaign. 

Central to his fund-raising efforts was said to be hedge fund manager Paul Singer of Elliott Associates, one of the biggest Republican fundraisers, and a well known Giuliani supporter.  Other big financial names were mentioned as well: Giuliani was urged to court KKR’s Henry Kravis for his support, but he’s now allied with John McCain as are others whose support was sought.  Other supposedly politically uncommitted names whose support is being courted include Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch.

The document was obtained by the Daily News from a source sympathetic to one of Giuliani’s rivals for the White House. The source said it was left behind in one of the cities Giuliani visited as he campaigned for dozens of Republican candidates in the weeks leading up to the November 2006 elections.

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel suggested there were political dirty tricks behind the loss of the documents and called the timing suspicious.

"I wonder why such suspicious activity is occurring and can only guess it is because of Rudy’s poll numbers in New Hampshire and Iowa," Mindel said.

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Tags: Elliott Associates, Henry Kravis, Lloyd Blankfein, Rudy Giuliani, Rupert Murdoch

It’s always fun to see how American financiers are perceived abroad.  And now that KKR may be after Australian retail giant Coles Myer, The Australian has come out with a Henry Kravis profile piece…

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR

Henry Kravis must feel like a kid in a candy store.  The Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co co-founder told investors yesterday on a conference call that he’s "never seen" so much cash available for LBO’s.

"We continue to be very active and optimistic about our ability to close large transactions," Kravis said in a conference call yesterday with investors in the New York-based firm’s publicly traded buyout fund. "I’ve never seen a market with this much liquidity and capital available."……"Valuations are coming down to offset rising finance costs,"….

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR, Private equity

A few weeks ago, The Economist published a piece on Henry Kravis: "A Barbarian No More".   We found another recent profile from the UK publication "The Business"…. 

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR

The Economist has a profile piece on Henry Kravis…

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Tags: Henry Kravis, KKR

Buy-out group nobility, including Steven Schwarzman of Blackstone, Henry Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis,  David Rubenstein of Carlyle, David Bonderman of Texas Pacific and Leon Black of Apollo Management are in Frankfurt for the Super Return conference (Feb 20-23) where they’re scheduled speakers…

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Tags: Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle, Henry Kravis, KKR, Leon Black, Private equity