KKR extends KPE deadline, listing plans delayed

By Megan Davies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co KKR.UL on Friday extended by four months the deadline to buy its Amsterdam-listed fund KPE (KKR.AS), a deal that is key to KKR's plans for a U.S. stock listing.

The firm has also asked investors in one of its European funds for an additional 730 million euros ($970 million) to make follow-on investments in the fund's portfolio companies, a source familiar with the plan said on Friday. [nN24411770]

The private equity industry has been struggling with numerous problems -- absence of leverage for new deals, troubled portfolio companies and investors hurt by equity market falls.

New York-based KKR, co-founded by "buyout king" Henry Kravis, has the added problem of having announced plans to take itself public just prior to the markets plunging.

KKR's plans to become a publicly traded company hinge on the deal to buy the KPE fund. If that transaction is scrapped, the listing would be thrown into question.

KKR announced the complicated transaction last July, saying it would buy KPE, delist it from Euronext and launch the combined new company on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "KKR" KKR.N. KKR had previously considered a more conventional initial public offering.

"I still think that the likelihood of the deal getting done is still pretty remote at this point, given the market backdrop," said Sandler O'Neill analyst Michael Kim. But he thought KKR still intends to go public at some point.

"I think ultimately the goal for KKR is still to be a public company listed on the NYSE," Kim said. "Whether or not that happens in the next 1-3 years, I think a lot has to do with the environment and whether they can come to the market."