KKR announced the appointments of two Managing Directors in the firm’s global private credit team who will focus on sourcing investment opportunities in the specialty lending and private asset-based finance (“ABF”) markets. Jim Lees and Vaibhav Piplapure (“VP”) join the firm as Managing Directors based in New York and London, respectively.

“We are energized by the growth and evolution of non-corporate private lending,” said Dan Pietrzak, Partner and Co-head of Private Credit at KKR based in New York. “The addition of Jim and VP to our growing ABF team further bolsters our leadership in this space and we will continue to add senior resources to the team as we pursue the large opportunity set that we believe exists across a range of sectors and geographies.”

Messrs. Lees and Piplapure collectively have over 45 years of experience in ABF investments, specialty lending and structured finance and will join KKR’s 75 person private credit team, which includes 20 investment professionals focused on ABF investing.

Mr. Lees joins KKR from Wells Fargo Securities where he was Managing Director in the ABF business responsible for overseeing new client originations across a wide range of small and large specialty finance companies, financial institutions and alternative asset managers. Mr. Piplapure most recently served as Co-Head of Specialty Finance at M&G Investments where he helped to establish a business line focused on originating, structuring and investing in consumer and mortgage credit portfolio opportunities in Europe.

Matthieu Boulanger, Partner and Co-head of Private Credit at KKR based in London, said: “Jim and VP’s deep expertise and relationships in the private ABF markets will help us identify and access an even greater number of under-served and mispriced lending opportunities that offer our investors attractive and uncorrelated income.”

Since 2016, KKR has deployed more than $4 billion in 39 ABF investments globally. KKR’s portfolio includes 9 proprietary loan origination platforms focused on themes in consumer/mortgage finance, hard assets, SME and contractual cash flows which have a combined total new loan origination capacity estimated at $2 billion. KKR has established these lending businesses in partnership with experienced industry management teams to pursue specific lending markets that the firm finds attractive.

KKR’s credit business has approximately $156 billion of assets under management, including approximately $49 billion within its private credit platform as of December 31, 2020 (pro forma to include Global Atlantic’s assets following KKR’s acquisition of Global Atlantic on February 1, 2021).