KKR has appointed Hidekazu Harada as a Managing Director in the firm’s Private Equity team based in Tokyo, effective immediately.Harada brings over 20 years of investment banking experience to KKR. He joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he worked for 16 years and was most recently a Board member and Co-Head of Japan Investment Banking. At Bank of America Merrill Lynch he was primarily responsible for financial sponsors, TMT, mergers & acquisitions, management buyouts, and leveraged finance. Prior to his time at the bank, he spent four years at Daiwa Securities SMBC’s Tokyo and London offices where he focused on mergers & acquisitions. Earlier in his career, he worked on transaction services at ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PwC Japan Group).
Hiro Hirano, Partner, Co-Head of Private Equity for KKR Asia Pacific and Chief Executive Officer of KKR Japan, says: “We are delighted to welcome Hidekazu to the team. His significant experience will contribute to our senior leadership in Japan. This appointment, along with additional experienced hires to our team, reinforces our long-term commitment to Japan and underscores our view that private equity will continue to be an important strategy in this market.”
Harada adds: “Over the past decade, KKR has been an investment leader in Japan with a strong reputation founded on its ability to help improve the corporate value of Japanese companies. I am excited to work with the KKR team to assist Japanese companies in becoming more competitive across global markets, in addition to contributing to the firm’s continued growth.”
Japan remains a key investment market for KKR globally, and Harada’s appointment is the latest addition to KKR’s Japan team across seniority levels and asset classes. KKR established an office in Japan in 2006, and since then, has invested or committed more than USD2.2 billion of equity into high-caliber companies. Among other strategies, KKR seeks opportunities to assist Japanese companies in expanding overseas and developing cross-border growth strategies, in addition to helping companies to carve out and support their non-core businesses. KKR’s current and former Private Equity investments in Japan include, but are not limited to, PHC Holdings (formerly Panasonic Healthcare), AlphaTheta (formerly Pioneer DJ), Magneti Marelli CK Holdings (formerly Calsonic Kansei), Koki Holdings (formerly Hitachi Koki), Kokusai Electric (formerly Hitachi Kokusai Electric), and Persol Career (formerly Intelligence).
