KKR Raises $2.5B for Asia Pacific Private Credit

Private equity giant KKR has completed $2.5 billion in fundraising for strategies focused on privately originated, performing credit investments in Asia Pacific.

The committed capital includes $1.8 billion for Asia Credit Opportunities Fund II and $700 million raised from separately managed accounts, Manhattan-based KKR said Wednesday in a release. ACOF II is billed as the largest pan-regional performing private credit fund in APAC and the follow-up to the series’ inaugural vehicle, which closed on $1.1 billion in 2022.

So far the second fund has contributed to 10 investments representing $1.9 billion in KKR commitments, including other pools of capital, with a total transaction volume of $4.6 billion, according to the announcement. KKR has made Asia a key pillar of its global credit strategy, said Diane Raposio, partner and head of Asia credit and markets at the NYSE-listed firm.

“We are seeing growing investor demand for allocation to credit in the region,” Raposio said. “Our pan-Asia approach and ability to leverage the broader KKR Asia platform uniquely positions us to continue sourcing and executing interesting opportunities across the region for our investors.”

Structural Themes

KKR provided no specific details about the fund’s limited partners, saying only that ACOF II received strong support from new and existing investors including insurers, public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, banks, corporates and asset managers.

Like its predecessor, ACOF II plans to target opportunities across senior and unitranche direct lending, capital solutions and collateral-backed investments. The vehicle builds on a KKR Asia credit strategy that has closed more than 60 investments since 2019, accounting for $8.3 billion invested by KKR and a total transaction value of $27.5 billion across the healthcare, education, real estate and infrastructure sectors, the firm said.

“We see strong demand for private credit as an important tool for sponsors or corporates seeking flexible financing solutions and bespoke, partnership-oriented capital to support growth and meet their diverse needs,” said SJ Lim, managing director and head of Asia private credit at KKR. “Our performing credit strategy is based on the same long term structural themes such as rising consumption, urbanisation and digitalisation that have underpinned the growth of private markets in Asia.”

A manager of $723 billion in assets globally, KKR wrapped up 2025 with two of Asia’s biggest real estate deals of the year in Japan and South Korea.

On Christmas Eve, the buyout giant announced that it and PAG would acquire Sapporo Real Estate in a deal valuing the property assets and operations at JPY 477 billion ($3 billion). The deal renders the Japanese brewer’s real estate holdings to a KKR-PAG joint venture called Spark, with those assets including Yebisu Garden Place, a 1994-vintage mixed-use complex spanning an 83,000 square metre (893,405 square foot) site in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward.

Last year’s waning days saw KKR reveal its purchase of a warehouse facility from Canada’s Brookfield for KRW 1 trillion ($692 million) in Korea’s largest-ever single-asset logistics deal. The 4.6 million square foot (427,354 square metre) Cheongna Logistics Center in Incheon is fully leased to tenants including e-commerce giant Coupang and convenience store chain Emart24.

Cash for Closers

The news of KKR’s private credit plans came one day after a burst of fund-closing notices from three global giants.

CBRE Investment Management on Tuesday announced the final close of its latest real estate secondaries fund with $1.62 billion in capital commitments, surpassing its original $1.25 billion target. The Manhattan-based firm said it secured additional co-investment capital, bringing the overall investment capacity to over $2.25 billion.

Ares Management reported on the same day that it had raised $7.1 billion in capital for its credit secondaries strategy, inclusive of the final closing of its inaugural Ares Credit Secondaries Fund, affiliated vehicles and anticipated leverage. With $4 billion in LP equity commitments, the fund doubled its $2 billion target and represents the Los Angeles firm’s largest inaugural institutional fundraise.

Also Tuesday, Boston-based Bain Capital made public its closing of more than $5 billion in new capital across its real estate strategies, including the completion of fundraising for Bain Capital Real Estate Fund III with $3.4 billion in total commitments.