New York, January 14, 2019 – Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that Jon Korngold, a former senior leader at General Atlantic, will join the firm as a Senior Managing Director and head of Blackstone’s Growth Equity investing platform. Jon will be responsible for building and running this new platform which will provide capital to companies during the critical phase between venture capital investments and traditional buyouts.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Jon Korngold to Blackstone and announce the launch of our growth equity platform.  This is a highly synergistic expansion area for the firm and a natural extension of our existing businesses. We are pleased to be growing in this area with a dynamic industry veteran like Jon, who has a successful track record investing in and building scale businesses.”

Jon Gray, Blackstone President & COO, said: “Expansion into growth equity investing represents a compelling opportunity for the firm and our Limited Partners.  Jon is the ideal leader for this new platform. He will build upon Blackstone’s capabilities and strengthen all of our investing businesses through his deep expertise in the rapidly evolving technology sector.”

Jon Korngold added: “I am pleased to join Blackstone as it expands into growth equity investing. The firm has a strong history of successfully innovating into new business areas and I am excited about the opportunity to build a world-class investing platform. The scale, geographic reach and global operating resources that Blackstone can provide fast-growing companies are unparalleled, and will be a real competitive advantage.”

At General Atlantic, Mr. Korngold was a member of the firm’s Management Committee, Chairman of the Portfolio Committee and Global Head of the firm’s Financial Services and Healthcare sectors.  In his 18 years at General Atlantic, he sourced and executed billions of dollars of growth equity investments across the technology services, enterprise software, healthcare, financial services and consumer sectors.  For each of the last three years, Mr. Korngold was ranked #1 among investors on Institutional Investor’s “Fintech Finance 40” list, which recognizes top dealmakers in the financial technology industry. Prior to General Atlantic, he worked in Goldman Sachs’ Principal Investing and M&A groups in London and New York.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with $457 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.

Contact
Matt Anderson
+1-212-390-2472
matthew.anderson@blackstone.com

2018 was yet another eventful year for EQT. The various EQT buy-out funds invested in 52 companies and exited, or partially exited 18. The pace was high also on the fundraising side with three funds successfully closed; EQT Mid Market Asia III (at USD 800 million), EQT Mid-Market Credit II (at EUR 2.3 billion which was more than four times the size of its predecessor fund), and EQT VIII (at its hard cap of EUR 11 billion after less than six months of fundraising).

The EQT organization has continued to grow both geographically, with offices opened in San Francisco and Berlin, and in terms of new investment strategies, with Public Value being the most recent initiative. EQT also welcomed some 80 new colleagues to the firm and today, EQT has close to 600 employees across the globe.

Being an organization where the most important asset is the employees, it is a great pleasure to announce the yearly Partner promotions – the following Directors have been promoted to Partners, effective as of January 1, 2019.

• Brian Chang, Mid Market, Singapore
• Victor Englesson, Mid Market, Stockholm
• Stephen Escudier, Credit, New York
• Carl Johan Renström, Equity, Stockholm
• Magnus Tornling, Equity, Oslo
• Matthias Wittkowski, Equity, Munich

Christian Sinding, CEO and Managing Partner comments: “I would like to express my warmest congratulations to the new Partners. They have all demonstrated a strong dedication and an entrepreneurial spirit, providing valuable contributions to the EQT platform, our culture and values. I look forward to working together for continued success as we enter the next phase of EQT’s growth journey.”

In addition, EQT is happy to announce the recruitment of two new Partners to the EQT Ventures advisory team; Lyle Fong and Johan Svanström. Lyle has founded several companies in enterprise software and gaming, and Johan was most recently worldwide President of Hotels.com, and a member of the global management team of its parent, Expedia Group Inc. Both will be based in London.

Thomas von Koch, Deputy Managing Partner, adds: “I am thrilled about the Partner promotions, these individuals play a key role in EQT’s vision to become the most reputable investor and owner and they are truly passionate about developing companies. I also look forward to collaborating with Lyle and Johan in my new capacity focusing on EQT’s various growth areas – their experiences as serial entrepreneurs will be invaluable for EQT Ventures’ future development.”

The Board of Directors of Nordstjernan AB has appointed Peter Hofvenstam as the new CEO. Peter Hofvenstam is currently Deputy CEO and head of the Unlisted Holdings business area, which represents approximately half of Nordstjernan’s operations. He was born in 1965, has an MSc Economics, and has held various positions at Nordstjernan since 1999. He is a board member of Rosti and Swedol, as well as the chairman of Nordstjernan Kredit. Tomas Billing will continue as CEO until the transition, which will take place at the Annual General Meeting in May 2019.

“Taking Nordstjernan forward will be an exciting challenge. I look forward to work closely with our professional team to further reinforce our model of active long-term ownership in order to develop our companies and to create good returns,” says Peter Hofvenstam.

“As the chairman of Nordstjernan, it is a pleasure to present a strong internal successor to Tomas Billing. Peter has a genuine understanding of long-term value creation. He is responsible for Nordstjernan’s Unlisted Holdings, a business area that has developed very well through both growth in profits and sound business transactions. I look forward to working with Peter in his new role,” says Viveca Ax:son Johnson.

Outgoing CEO Tomas Billing will continue to work at Nordstjernan after the transition, in a role as senior advisor. He will work on nomination committees and boards in Nordstjernan’s holdings.

“I would like to thank Tomas Billing, who has been CEO for a full 20 years. When he started, Nordstjernan’s net asset value was SEK 2.7 billion, and we had one investment – NCC. Today, our net asset value is SEK 30 billion and we have 15 active investments. Two unlisted companies – Rosti and Etac – currently comprise Nordstjernan’s largest holdings. That is quite an achievement,” says Viveca Ax:son Johnson.
Questions will be answered by:

Viveca Ax:son Johnson
Chairman of Nordstjernan AB
Telephone: +46 8 788 50 18
E-mail: vaj@nordstjernan.se

Stefan Stern
Senior advisor, responsible for communications, Nordstjernan AB
Telephone: +46 70 636 74 17
E-mail: stefan.stern@nordstjernan.se
Nordstjernan AB is a family-controlled investment company whose business concept is to be an active owner that creates long-term and positive value growth. More information about Nordstjernan can be found on www.nordstjernan.se.

Appointment Aimed at Meaningfully Scaling Credit Operations in India

MUMBAI, India–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 4, 2018– KKR today announced the appointment of Sumanth Cidambi and Vijay Padmanabhan as Directors for the firm’s credit business in India. Both the appointments will help KKR deepen and scale its existing India credit strategy and move into adjacencies.

KKR has been the pioneer in developing private high-yield and structured credit investing in India. The firm operates in the credit space through an NBFC and Alternative Investment Funds, suitably complemented with global capital pools. Since 2009, the firm has executed on over 140 transactions in India, valued at close to US$6 billion.

Speaking on the appointments, BV Krishnan, Member, KKR, and CEO, KKR India Financial Services, said: “Both Sumanth and Vijay join our team at a very opportune time. Sumanth brings to us the much necessary owner-operator mindset and has a track record of delivering sustainable value. He will complement our focus on building capabilities in the operational turnaround and workout areas, which are becoming a critical differentiator in credit investing in India.”

He further added, “Vijay brings on board deep credit underwriting experience. He has a unique risk-reward perspective, having worked in the UK and India. His skill sets and understanding of the domestic eco-system give him a wholesome understanding of what it takes to succeed in this space. His ability to underwrite across the capital structure will be a critical element in our plan to further scale our platform where we have been the market leader in private high-yield investing.”

With nearly two and a half decades of diversified industrial experience, Sumanth Cidambi has worked extensively with corporate boards and senior management teams in Asia, Europe and the US, to create sustainable value. Leveraging his deep experience in operations restructuring and business turnarounds, he will work closely with KKR’s credit portfolio companies in India to deliver identified and specific value. Sumanth’s addition highlights the firm’s strong view that operational involvement in companies is a dimension that is critical to delivering value to stakeholders, and risk managing outcomes.

Vijay Padmanabhan has extensive experience in credit underwriting and distress investing, in the UK and India, including in Old Lane, Fidelity Investments, SBI Funds Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors.

Early this year, KKR’s India Financial Services made two Director level hires viz. Jigar Shah as the Legal and Compliance Head for the firm in India, from JP Morgan, and Niraj Karia as a senior credit originator, from Kotak Investment Bank.

KKR has been investing in India since 2006. In addition to a strong private equity practice, KKR is highly focused on credit, capital markets and real estate opportunities in India. Its credit portfolio in India includes, but is not limited to, Enzen Global Solutions, Amanta Healthcareand Walchandnagar Industries.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

About KKR India Financial Services

KKR India Financial Services (“KIFS”) is KKR’s alternative credit business in India that provides flexible financing to companies via a unique business model that comprises balance sheet — via a non-bank finance company —alternative asset management, and capital markets. As of Nov 30, 2018, KIFS has executed over 140 transactions in India worth close to US$6 billion.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181204005484/en/

Source: KKR

Media

For KKR Asia:
Cara Major
Cara.Major@KKR.com

For KKR India:
Edelman
Siddharth Panicker, +91-9820-857-522
Siddharth.Panicker@Edelman.com