People

Exclusive: Agrawal takes KKR infra top spot as global co-head departs

Industry veteran Jesús Olmos (pictured), who joined the private equity firm a decade ago, is leaving at the end of April.

-

Jesús Olmos, KKR’s global co-head of infrastructure alongside Raj Agrawal, is leaving the firm at the end of April, Infrastructure Investor has learnt.

The industry veteran – who prior to joining KKR in late 2008 to help build its infrastructure team was chief executive of Endesa Europa – is understood to be staying until the end of April to help fully invest the firm’s second $3.1 billion infrastructure fund, closed in 2015.

Following Olmos’ departure, Agrawal, who joined KKR in 2006, will become the infrastructure team’s sole leader. Both Tara Davies, head of European infrastructure, and Vincent Policard, part of the European infrastructure team, had recently been promoted to partner and are understood to be helping to shoulder some of Olmos’ responsibilities.

Spanish newspaper Expansion first reported that Olmos is considering launching his own infrastructure fund, which matches with what Infrastructure Investor has learnt.

KKR was not available for comment.

Olmos is an industry veteran with a long career, having joined Endesa – Spain’s leading electricity utility and Latin America’s largest private electricity utility – in 1991, where he served as a member of the executive board. During his time there, he spearheaded a number of investments across the globe and developed Endesa’s European business, which was sold to E.ON for an enterprise value of €11 billion in 2008.

KKR is currently fundraising for its third infrastructure vehicle, which is said to be targeting around $5 billion. In its late October Q3 2017 earnings call, KKR’s second infrastructure fund had $1.82 billion of uncalled commitments and chief financial officer William Janetschek said the firm was looking to invest between $600 million and $700 million in the fourth quarter or first quarter of 2018.

It had a busy 2017, with standout deals including the €2.95 billion acquisition of car parks operator Q-Park and the €1.3 billion purchase of a 40 percent stake in Telxius, the infrastructure division of telecoms firm Telefónica.