Everybody Knows Who We Work For
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, private equity pioneer and KKR co-founder and co-CEO George Roberts spoke about the private equity business model and the relationship each PE firm has with its investors, most importantly public pension funds. Roberts explained that everybody at KKR knows, “who they work for,” and that their investments will help the 40 million retirees—firemen, policemen, teachers— in US Public pensions whose money is invested in a KRR fund.
Roberts also discusses being one of the first private equity investors to partner with pension funds. For Roberts, the partnership is a natural one. Pension funds depend private equity to generate the long term returns needed to cover liabilities while private equity firms need pension fund investment to fund their business.
62 percent of all money invested in private equity comes from pension funds, charitable foundations and university endowments. In addition to strengthening companies and driving economic growth across the United States, private equity has been an essential source of investment returns for these investment groups. PEGCC recently released a new interactive map that includes pension information and rankings.
