KKR Names New Head of Greater China Operations
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
(WSJ by Rick Carew) – KKR & Co. tapped a veteran Asian finance executive to lead its China operations as the U.S. private-equity giant continues to broaden the scope of its deal making in Asia, according to people familiar with the situation.
Paul Yang, chief executive of Taipei-based merchant bank China Development Financial Corp., will take up the new role, which also oversees KKR’s business in Hong Kong and Taiwan, in January, according to the people. He will replace David Liu, who is leaving KKR at the end of this year to start his own private-equity firm with another senior KKR executive.
The new hire comes as KKR expands the types of deals it does across Asia. The firm, which raised Asia’s largest private-equity fund at $6 billion in 2012, had primarily taken minority stakes in fast-growing Chinese companies. Recently, it has been pursuing more deals that involve helping Chinese companies invest abroad, as well as buyouts of local Chinese companies. For example, KKR helped guide China’s Qingdao Haier Co., in which it owns a minority stake, to buy General Electric Co.’s appliance business for $5.4 billion. That deal closed in June this year. That same month, KKR hired Rob Yang from rival Blackstone Group LP to build out its China real-estate operation.
