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Back of Napkin

KKR & Co. Inc. KKR

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In February, KKR's two co-chief executives each spent roughly $17M of their own cash buying stock in the open market near $100, and six months later the firm printed record fee earnings, up 37%, with the shares still 29% below their old high.

The setup turns on whether the market's discount, applied for the insurance balance sheet and a $250M antitrust settlement announced this week, is mispricing the fastest-growing fee machine among the big alternative managers.

KKR · price with moving averages

Daily · 6MWeekly · 3Y
$45$78$111$143$176 Sep '23Apr '24Nov '24Jun '25Jan '26Aug '26 BID
EMAs82140

Source: market data.

The business

KKR raises long-dated funds across private equity, infrastructure, real estate and credit, charges management fees on $638.4B of fee-paying assets, and takes a share of profits on top. Two things distinguish the model from its peers. Global Atlantic, a wholly owned insurer, feeds permanent capital into the credit engine, $334B of KKR's assets are perpetual, 42% of the total. And the retail K-Series suite has grown from $25B to $42B in a year, the fastest private-wealth ramp in the group. The moat is brand plus locked capital: money that cannot leave does not need to be re-won.

Inside the complete Back of Napkin

  1. 01The business
  2. 02The numbers
  3. 03Management
  4. 04How it fails or surprises you
  5. 05The shape of the payoff
  6. 06Closing thoughts
  7. 07Methodology

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