KKR & Co Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Before we dive into the details of some of the various parts of KKR, can you maybe level set for the group here? What are some of your key focuses for the firm? How is KKR, how do you view the company as different from some of your peers?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe turning to a more zoomed out macro question, you talk a bit about what you're seeing most recently in terms of realizations, transacting activity. Does it look like 2026 could be the year we've been waiting for? What are the key factors, what's the house view on rates inflation? How are you thinking about all that?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Why don't we come back to private equity in your opening remarks, you sound quite confident on KKR's franchise there. Now how would you describe current LP attitudes towards traditional P/E? It seems like the whole industry for a few years has been struggling to raise and realize, can KKR be an exception. And I'm also curious, we've heard a lot of trends about anecdote things like GP consolidation and anything you can share, any anecdotes that might, things you might be observing. And that kind of thing.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Sticking on the P/E side, can you maybe talk about deployment opportunities? Where are you seeing the most interesting opportunities to deploy in traditional private equity these days.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Great. Are you kind of answered my next question on the opportunities in Asia. Is there anything else to add that that was going to be the next one, but.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe now switching gears to infrastructure real quick. So that is your other significant flagship funds in the market. Maybe talk about how LPs are currently thinking about allocations to this asset class. What might that mean for the ultimate level of fundraising for the fund in the market, how do kind of deployment opportunities play into this? Does that sort of, expand the TAM or the appetite from LPs even further?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe moving over to credit now. So you recently closed on a $6.5 billion ABF fund, which is your largest in credit. Where do you see the next leg of near-term growth in the broader credit business coming from? Is it scaling this franchise? You've got a non-traded BDC in the market. Like how do you think about that growth sector?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : We touched on a bunch of the different segments of your asset management business. Maybe thinking more broadly about deployment, the tactical timing of the back half of the year. I mean, how are things shaking as we're going into the next couple of quarters? Curious about your capital markets fees. I think on your last update on your earnings call, you said the back half should look flattish with upside from constructive markets. How are things trending so far? Is there any update you can share there?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Great. Maybe moving on to your wealth business. So maybe just to start, can you give us a little bit of an overview of the current product suite where are you focused on building out distribution, where is there room for additional product innovation?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe one final question on the retail side. One of the questions we get asked quite often is, how do you manage the conflict between retail fundraising, which needs to be invested immediately and is earning fees immediately versus institutional capital, which can be patient, but doesn't always generate fees right away. How do you think about managing those two sides and that sort of kind of inherent conflict at times?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe moving to Global Atlantic. So you've owned 100% of that business for a few years now. And maybe just to start, can you talk about the changes you've made since you've owned the entirety of the business, how things have evolved in the last few years or so?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : And maybe can you talk about what you're seeing currently? How would you describe the current environment for retail annuities. We've heard from some of your competitors about increasing competition, narrowing market-wide spreads, weighing on yields. What are you seeing from your (inaudible)?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe putting that all together, just from a P&L perspective, so I think your current guidance calls for a continued kind of flattish near-term outlook for insurance operating earnings despite ongoing growth in the asset base. How should investors think about the cadence of the timing of the inflection here, given your plans to elongate the liability profile, what should we expect in terms of when you might get back to like a mid-teens reported pretax ROE?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : I have two final questions. I want to make sure we get to them both, so I'll ask them both here. So first, in addition to Global Atlantic, strategic holdings is the other sort of newest line item at KKR, you talked about this at your last Investor Day, being the sort of solution to solving the longer-term problem of compounding in financial services. So maybe can you give us an update here talk about your current level of conviction? And then the final question, I just want to make sure I get it as well, but just putting it all together, there's a number of sort of medium-term targets you've laid out, fundraising from '24 to '26, 2026 FRE and NTE per share. How are you feeling at the moment about those targets?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Great. Well, we're just about out of time. But Rob, thank you so much for the pleasure to have you.