Financial investor KKR sells shares at a high profit

Munich The financial investor KKR has used the soaring shares in the defense industry to exit the defense electronics manufacturer Hensoldt. The US investment company, which brought the company from Taufkirchen near Munich to the stock exchange in autumn 2020, sold its remaining almost 8.8 million shares to institutional investors overnight at a price of EUR 24.50 each, as several trusted with the placement People at the Reuters news agency on Friday said. This means that KKR will once again earn around 215 million euros.

For the Americans, the commitment to Hensoldt was worth it: they spun off the radar division from the Airbus group in 2016 for 1.1 billion euros. According to Reuters calculations, the financial investor took in more than 1.6 billion euros with the sale of his shares. The actual rate of return is likely to be significantly higher — private equity firms typically fund most of the purchase price with debt they incur on the acquired companies.