Akshay Tanna Exits TPG to Join KKR as Head of Private Equity
As per to the sources, Akshay Tanna, a partner at TPG, is expected to join KKR & Co as a partner and head of its private equity unit, after working for the Texas-based firm for over a decade.
Tanna (40) will be in charge of the entire gamut of buyouts, control transactions, growth equity, and even impact investments across industries at the American private equity firm. He will report to Gaurav Trehan, KKR's India country head.
On Monday, the two companies were notified of the development. An official statement is coming soon.
Tanna, a Wharton School alumnus, worked as an investment banker in New York and London for Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank before joining TPG in 2010, where he invested in the firm's growth ($14.5 billion AUM), technology ($5.1 billion AUM), and impact funds ($5 billion AUM).
Tanna's early investments with TPG included Sutures, Dodla Dairy, and Landmark Auto, but he became known for consumer tech winners like Lenskart, which resulted in a fourfold dollar return in as many years. Nykaa also provided an 8x return in four years. BookMyShow, Dream11, FirstCry, Livspace, and ExpressBees were among his other ventures.
KKR is bullish on the investment prospects in India amid a volatile global macroeconomic environment and is looking to make large bets on businesses in sectors such as healthcare, consumer and technology, co-CEO Joseph Y Bae said in a recent interaction.
KKR, which began investing in the country in 2006, has so far pumped in more than $10 billion into India. Some of its biggest bets include Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Retail, Vini Cosmetics, Avendus, JB Chemicals, Lenskart and 5 Star Finance.
"India is a very, very important part, not just of our Asia strategy, but also our global strategy. It has incredible fundamental growth," said Bae. It has also invested a little over $2 billion in Indian infrastructure. That vertical will continue to be led by Hardik Shah, who joined the firm from Brookfield.
Bae stated that KKR's future investments in India would be concentrated in healthcare, services and pharmaceuticals, consumer enterprises, and technology adoption.
While the private equity firm is optimistic on certain aspects of its business, it is also reconsidering others, such as lending and real estate, which the investor historically did through its own balance sheet.
Last year, KKR merged its corporate lending book with Incred Financial Services, and it is currently considering options for its real estate lending platform.
Regarding returns from India, Trehan stated that KKR had regularly produced returns to its investors in the high teens. Its most recent public market departure was a $2 billion holding in Max Healthcare in 10 months.