KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) reported record second-quarter results for 2026, led by growth in management fees, fundraising, capital deployment and monetization activity across its asset management, insurance and strategic holdings businesses.
Fee-related earnings were $1.32 per share, up 34% from a year earlier. Total operating earnings rose 27% to $1.68 per share, while adjusted net income increased 38% to $1.63 per share. KKR said all three metrics reached quarterly records, as did their trailing-12-month totals.
Management fees and fundraising momentum
Management fees totaled $1.2 billion, up 26% year over year, or 18% excluding catch-up fees in both periods. Fee-related earnings totaled $1.2 billion, and the fee-related earnings margin was just above 70%. Chief Financial Officer Rob Lewin said the firm does not view its margin level as a ceiling, citing operating leverage from revenue growth that is outpacing headcount and expense growth.
KKR said it had $72 billion of committed capital not yet earning fees as of June 30, up nearly 30% from the prior year. That capital carries a weighted-average management fee of roughly 90 basis points once it is invested or enters its investment period.
The company highlighted continued growth across its major strategies since the beginning of 2024. Private equity assets under management increased about 45%, infrastructure assets under management doubled, credit assets under management rose roughly 35%, and wealth assets under management increased sixfold. Third-party insurance assets under management rose more than 50%, according to Lewin.
Infrastructure fundraising included KKR’s latest global and Asia infrastructure funds, which had raised a combined $25 billion as of June 30. KKR also launched Helix Digital Infrastructure in June with more than $10 billion of initial long-duration committed capital. The company described Helix as a perpetual company focused on providing coordinated data center, power and connectivity solutions to hyperscalers. Former Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky leads the business, while NVIDIA and Vistra are strategic partners alongside founding investors Kuwait Investment Authority and KKR.
Wealth, credit and Arctos expansion
KKR’s K-Series wealth platform attracted $3 billion during the quarter. K-Series assets under management reached $42 billion, compared with approximately $25 billion a year earlier, an increase of nearly 70%. Co-Chief Executive Officer Scott Nuttall said the platform’s assets were up more than 20% year to date on a net basis despite industry concerns around redemptions and retail alternatives products.
Nuttall said approximately 85% of K-Series assets are currently invested in private equity and infrastructure. He said KKR continues to build its distribution capabilities in Asia and Europe and has not changed its plans to invest in retail expansion. He identified education for financial advisers, wider platform access and distribution relationships as major drivers of broader private-market adoption among individual investors.
The company also cited progress following its acquisition of Arctos. The inaugural Keystone Fund closed at more than $6 billion, which KKR described as the largest first-time fund in the GP solutions market. Management said Arctos gives KKR opportunities in sports investing, GP-led solutions and secondaries, and that it expects KKR Solutions to exceed $100 billion in assets under management over time.
In credit, KKR said it sees substantial opportunity in private investment-grade financing, including asset-based finance, bespoke corporate solutions and long-duration real estate investments. Craig Larson, KKR’s head of investor relations, said the company’s credit business has grown from roughly $80 billion to $300 billion since the Global Atlantic acquisition, while management fees associated with the business have more than tripled to about $1.2 billion.
Record monetizations and investment performance
KKR recorded its largest monetization quarter in company history. Realized performance income was $848 million, while realized investment income was $220 million, including $30 million of investment gains from strategic holdings. The company said remaining unrealized gains across asset management and strategic holdings stood at $18.2 billion at quarter-end.
Management cited a pipeline of approximately $700 million of monetization-related visibility for the next quarter, with about 80% expected from realized performance revenue and 20% from realized investment income. Lewin said the company remains focused on operating performance rather than providing a renewed formal earnings-per-share target.
Traditional private equity appreciated 4% during the quarter and 9% over the trailing 12 months. Infrastructure appreciated 1% in the quarter and 8% over 12 months. Opportunistic real estate declined modestly during the quarter but remained positive over the trailing year, while leveraged credit and alternative credit generated positive quarterly returns and gained 5% over the past year.
Insurance and strategic holdings outlook
Insurance segment operating earnings were $288 million in the quarter, including approximately $40 million of net realization activity in Global Atlantic’s alternatives portfolio. Lewin said KKR continues to view approximately $250 million, plus or minus, as an appropriate near-term quarterly level for insurance operating earnings, though it expects outcomes to rise materially above that level as the alternatives portfolio matures in late 2027 and 2028.
KKR said total insurance economics, which include asset management fees and other related revenues in addition to insurance segment earnings, were $2 billion net of compensation over the trailing 12 months, up 13% from the prior period. The company said it has allocated less capital to insurance amid heightened competition but is positioning Global Atlantic around longer-duration liabilities and third-party capital. It had $6 billion of insurance dry powder, which management said represents more than $60 billion of liability-side buying power.
Strategic holdings generated $37 million of operating earnings in the quarter. KKR reiterated its expectation for more than $350 million of strategic holdings operating earnings in 2026, with results weighted toward the second half of the year. The company also maintained its longer-term goal of scaling strategic holdings operating earnings from $187 million over the last 12 months to more than $1.1 billion by 2030.
About KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR)
KKR & Co Inc is a global investment firm headquartered in New York City that specializes in private markets and alternative asset management. Founded in 1976 by Jerome Kohlberg Jr., Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts, the firm built its reputation in leveraged buyouts and has since expanded into a multi-strategy asset manager. KKR operates across private equity, credit, real assets (including real estate and infrastructure), growth equity and hedge fund strategies, offering a range of investment products and strategies for institutional and private investors.
KKR manages capital through traditional closed-end funds as well as customized vehicles such as separate accounts, co-investments, and listed investment vehicles.
