American private equity firm KKR & Co. is set to buy Avoca Capital, a European credit investment manager with approximately US$8 billion in assets under management.
Founded in 2002, Avoca provides its services to institutional investors, insurance companies, asset managers, pension funds, private banks and specialist investment vehicles.
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Following the close of the transaction, KKR will have approximately US$28 billion in credit assets in its multi-strategy credit platform operating globally in San Francisco, New York, Dublin, London and Sydney.
According to KKR, the combined European credit business will have approximately 80 people on the ground and 8 billion (US$11 billion) of European credit assets ranging across the entire capital structure in credit from senior loans to long short credit, structured credit, mezzanine, special situations and convertible bonds.
Alan Burke, Avoca co-founder and CEO, will manage KKR’s European credit platform while together with Nat Zilkha will focus on the future growth of KKR’s global credit business.
Both Burke and Zilkha will report to Craig Farr, who has responsibility for KKR’s global credit and capital markets businesses.
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By GlobalDataAdditionally, Dónal Daly, co-founder and chairman of Avoca, will assume the senior advisor role at KKR.
The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.
Henry Kravis and George Roberts, co-founders and co-CEOs of KKR, said: "We believe the European credit space offers significant opportunity. This acquisition will enable us to expand our credit platform to offer a full spectrum of credit opportunities globally for our clients."
