US Debt Capital Markets Associate

POSITION SUMMARY
KKR Credit & Markets (“KCM”) is seeking a talented Debt Capital Markets Associate to join an active, high growth and high performance team.  The successful candidate will bring 2-4 years of leveraged finance experience, primarily in the origination, negotiation and syndication of debt across a variety of structures. Primary responsibilities will include assisting with i) debt placement and structuring for KKR’s Private Equity business, and ii) debt-related financing for certain of KKR's Credit businesses and third party clients globally.  This role is a unique opportunity to become a formative part of a growing capital markets business at KKR.

CRITICAL COMPETENCIES FOR SUCCESS

• Experience and fluency in debt capital markets, especially familiarity with larger more complex capital structures. This person will have an understanding of debt origination processes, capital markets terminology, and loan documentation.
  • This individual will work with the debt capital markets and investment teams to assist with the origination and placement of debt offerings in the US
  • This individual will be able to develop trusted relationships with the lending community and be able to discuss debt transactions with fluency with a variety of financing institutions (banks, institutional accounts and direct lenders)
• Experience with different types of debt transactions and asset classes. This person should feel comfortable quickly learning new industries and processes, helping to track and organize the syndication process through KKR’s registered broker dealer (covers growth, mid-market and large cap financings).
  • This individual will work with the investment team and will be required to quickly grasp critical details of evolving transactions
  • This person will be required to organize and track communications with sophisticated investors considering lending opportunities, including responding to transaction-specific questions
• Exceptional “like and trust” factor in order to build and maintain trusted relationships with lending institutions and co-investors/LPs
  • MUST BE A TEAM PLAYER. Must build relationships and interact effectively with KKR professionals across the Private Equity, Credit Solutions, KCM, and KCS teams as well as several business operations units (tax, legal, finance)
  • Must have an outgoing personality given the role will be outward facing including significant interaction with lenders and KKR LPs
• Highly commercial and entrepreneurial self-starter with strong judgment and ability to spot opportunity and develop creative solutions.
  • Individual must also be energized by the prospect of driving the growth on a small team within a larger organization
  • Must be excited to develop relationships with lenders and potential investors
• Strong execution and project management skills, sense of urgency, strong work ethic, and highly organized with an ability to multi-task across multiple active projects

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Origination and underwriting of new KKR Private Equity and third party deals
  • Assist with the due diligence process for new investment opportunities, including structuring and credit analysis, modeling of financial scenarios and review of legal documents and debt comparables
  • Conduct in-depth analysis of financial statements, key performance indicators and growth metrics of companies
  • Prepare capital committee memos and present new deal opportunities to committee
  • Construct key marketing materials, including presentations and models, to assist in the syndication of new transactions
• Develop and maintain relationships with syndicated and direct lenders as well as KKR stakeholders
  • The role will require detailed and constant communication with both internal and external parties
  • Key constituents include lenders, KKR’s existing LPs, other institutional investors who could become lenders or LPs, investor consultants and the KKR Private Equity, Credit Solutions, KCS and KCM teams
  • Working hand-in-hand with investment teams to maximize transaction time efficiency and avoid duplication of efforts
  • Proactively develop market relationships and seek market knowledge to help differentiate the DCM platform
• Organization and tracking of all Debt Capital Markets activities
  • Organization of the lender outreach processes and due diligence for leveraged loans, private credit financings, and other leveraged finance products
  • Development and maintenance of detailed tracking matrices for each transaction to monitor and store valuable market data
  • Working with the KCM team to track and monitor credit co-investment deals including extensive contact with potential lenders and investors globally
• Work hand-in-hand with deal teams to keep current on active or potential KKR Private Equity deals
  • Attend all team pipeline meetings and informally stay abreast of developing deals in the Private Equity and Credit Solutions groups to understand nuanced investment thesis and considerations and be able to “tell the story”
  • Stay informed about leveraged finance market developments, both from KKR Private Equity deal teams and from external relationships
• Maintenance of existing deal data
  • Maintenance of detailed reports for existing loans and other debt facilities
  • Abstraction of new loan documents to create deal summaries that can be easily relayed to the deal teams
  • Assisting deal teams with loan modification requests and interpretation of their loan documents for all previously closed deals