KKR & Co Inc Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Bill Katz - Cowen and Company LLC - Analyst : Okay. Actually, I have two, if I could squeeze it in. The first one on the insurance, and Rob, thank you for the expanded commentary. I think it would be interesting to see in your presentation, maybe what that mark-to-market pro forma look like so that the investment community could sort of track that along the way. So my first question is, as you think about the ROE trajectory for the insurance business, what do you think is a normalized level, and when do you get there? And then relative to your guidance that you may or may not get to that $7 plus next year depending upon the monetization backdrop, what, if any, mitigants do you have on expense side to potentially soften the differential?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Just maybe building a little bit on that -- and sorry to make this about guidance, but just given the performance of the stock this year and investor focused on various metrics, I think it's worthwhile spending a minute on this. When you think about FRE, and you guys have a $450-plus target for 2026 as well, it might be helpful just to kind of go through the broader building blocks as you look through current fundraising dynamics, operating leverage opportunity. And anything else you feel is worthwhile addressing as you think about '26 FRE?

Question: Brian Bedell - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Great. Thanks for all the color on the slide presentation today. Really, really good in-depth in answering a lot of questions. Maybe just to zoom back to GA and Capital Markets and looking at slide 20, I think in the footnote there, that is contribution for cap markets is net of FRE comp. I just want to confirm that. And then as you think about expanding the overall ROE past the 20% on the fee side, can you talk about that -- the expansion within the capital markets business from the GA side, what was that so far in '25 and how do you see that expanding in '26 and '27? Is that even a faster opportunity than the other parts of the fee-related business from the GA angle? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2025 / 2:00PM, KKR.N - Q3 2025 KKR & Co Inc Earnings Call

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe just a few kind of modeling details as we'll be getting a few questions on -- obviously, the big inflows in the credit space may be a little bit different from kind of the historical run rate. And then on the private equity side, it looks like the management fee rate -- I know there's been some catch-up fees in the past and other dynamics, but maybe just for those two segments, anything to call out maybe outside of catch-up fees that might be impacting the fee rate in this quarter? And how we should think about maybe the next couple of quarters?

Question: Michael Cyprys - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : I wanted to ask about the insurance business. I was just hoping you could elaborate a bit around how the changes you're making to the insurance business make you a better partner for insurance clients, how you'll be an even better partner for these clients and more clients over the next three to five years? And maybe you could elaborate on how these changes expand your competitive advantage?

Question: John Barnidge - Piper Jaffray Inc - Analyst : My question is kind of focused on the life insurance business. We've seen a lot of life insurers with sizable asset management operations even, but some without, partnering with alternative asset managers in increasing fashion for product creation for retirement products, evergreen or interval funds. Is this an opportunity for enhancing your relationships and brought it out the tentacles which the organization touches within broader life insurance?

Question: Patrick Davitt - Bernstein Autonomous LLP - Analyst : A lot of chatter on the quote-unquote, deal dam breaking, and it certainly does seem like that's happening, at least from a deployment and IPO standpoint. The industry announced M&A data in the US at least seems to still show fairly low strategic buyer activity for sponsor-backed companies even before the last two weeks volatility. So maybe it's just your point earlier on the bad vintages, but I would think there'd still be more. So from your perspective, what do you think is driving that disconnect? And in that vein, do you think there's something different about how the exit channel mix will track this cycle versus history? In other words, more reliant on the IPO channel versus strategic buyers?

Question: Brian McKenna - Citizens JMP Securities LLC - Analyst : Great. Of the $270 billion of carried interest eligible AUM that's above cost, maybe accrued and carry, what's the average multiple on invested capital for this AUM? And then is there a way to think about when the majority of this capital was invested on average?

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : My question is on the capital markets business, and I appreciate some of the new color on the GA side and also the robust realization now you just provided. But it was a very strong quarter for transaction fees and some of what closed in 3Q was actually a function of 2Q activity given the delay, and Q2 was weighed down by the trade war and correction public equities, which is why there's [new] activity across the industry. So my question is, if I look at your 3Q results, $328 million a quarter for total transaction fees, $278 million for our Capital Markets segment, is that a solid baseline to grow off of into 2026, if we see M&A activity continue to be elevated? Or were there some lumpy items there?