NEW YORK CITY-Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is ramping up its real estate investment efforts, hiring Ralph Rosenberg as managing director and head of real estate investing. A 17-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, Rosenberg was most recently a partner of Eton Park Capital Management; calls to Eton Park for comment were not returned by deadline Tuesday.
Rosenberg’s principal responsibility will be working across KKR’s global business to find attractive real estate opportunities that the firm could target with equity, debt or special situations investments, according to a release. He says in a statement that the global franchise at his new employer is “uniquely positioned to be a partner of choice for those seeking flexible debt and equity solutions to assist existing real estate companies and properties and to provide growth capital for new opportunities.”
KKR’s announcement comes as other private equity giants have made high-profile real estate plays. Late last month, the Blackstone Group acquired the US retail portfolio of Centro Properties Group for $9.4 billion, while TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners closed Monday on a $3-billion buyout of clothing retailer J.Crew. In January, Fort Worth-based TPG hired away Westbrook Partners’ Avi Banyasz to create a new real estate platform.
Although KKR has invested in more than a dozen real estate properties and platforms over its 35-year history, including a $7.3-billion deal to take retailer Dollar General private in 2007, Rosenberg is the firm’s first dedicated real estate professional. An industry source tells GlobeSt.com that several of KKR's previous private equity investments have had "significant real estate angles," and adds that having in-house expertise will enable the firm to uncover new opportunities.
The source emphasizes that hiring Rosenberg does not mean the creation of a self-contained real estate business at KKR. Instead, the firm seeks to bring all of its intellectual capital to bear on real estate-related investments. A spokeswoman for KKR declines to comment on the firm's fund-raising plans in this sector.
At Goldman Sachs, Rosenberg served as co-COO of Goldman’s Whitehall Funds and its Archon Capital commercial real estate lending platform, then spent two years as co-head of the firm’s Special Situations Group before founding his own investment firm, R6 Capital Management. He joined Eton Park from R6.
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