U.S. private equity giant KKR & Co. is not keen on investing in ailing sectors in Korea including shipbuilding and steel, its CEO said Tuesday.

“We’ve avoided, not just in Korea but around the world, investing in steel or shipbuilding or auto companies mainly because of cyclical nature of those businesses,” said George Roberts, cochairman and co-CEO of KKR, at a press conference in Seoul.



“We would be delighted to partner with some other fine Korean companies if they want to expand outside Korea where they can bring their knowledge and operate things efficiently, and they need a capital partner,” he said.

Established in 1976, KKR has grown into a multi-asset, multi-strategy firm with its core business being leveraged buyouts. It manages $125 billion third party capital, on top of its own $10 billion capital, according to the company.

While KKR has invested about $11 billion in the Asian market, the company wants to increase weight on Korea, where the U.S. private equity firm has invested $570 million, Roberts said.

He added that KKR tends to focus on consumer businesses and tries to find companies that it can help improve operations.

KKR first entered the Korean market in 2009 when it acquired local Oriental Brewery with Affinity Equity Partners for $1.8 billion from AB InBev, the world’s largest beer maker.

In five years, KKR helped the Korean company become the market leader with a 66 percent market share and resold it to AB InBev for $5.8 billion in 2014.

In March this year, KKR was selected as the preferred bidder for Kim’s Club, a hypermarket franchise with annual sales of around 1 trillion won ($852.5 million) under Korean retailer E-Land Group.

Roberts declined to comment on the prospects of the Kim’s Club deal, while news reports speculated that heavily indebted E-Land Group may sell Kim’s Club for less than 700 billion won that it had initially hoped for.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)