KKR & Co chief financial officer Robert Lewin has warned that some private equity firms will disappear as the sector enters a period of consolidation amid a prolonged slowdown in dealmaking and a squeeze on GPs that over-invested during the 2021–2022 boom, according op a report by Bloomberg.
Speaking at an industry conference on Monday, Lewin said firms with high costs and limited distributions are most at risk, predicting “a fair bit of GP consolidation over the next five years.” He added that larger players with stronger track records of capital returns stand to benefit as institutional investors concentrate commitments with proven managers.
Lewin emphasised that KKR avoided the over-deployment seen across the industry during 2021, and highlighted that its Americas private equity business has distributed twice as much capital as it has called over the past eight years.
The comments come as GPs globally grapple with sluggish exit markets, slower fundraising and investor pushback on fees — dynamics increasingly favouring scale players such as KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle and Apollo.
