The Acquisitor Strikes Again

An appetite for acquisitions made Kohlberg Kravis Roberts the top takeover firm of the 1980s, but the no-deal '90s seemed to have stymied the buyout behemoth. Last week, however, KKR showed that it remains a powerful takeover force. In a deal that would give KKR a substantial interest in magazines, the firm led a partnership that included several former officers of the Macmillan publishing and information-services company in a tentative agreement to pay more than $600 million for nine U.S. publications owned by debt-laden media magnate Rupert Murdoch. The KKR group would acquire such titles as Seventeen, New York and the Daily Racing Form, but the deal would exclude Murdoch's flagship publication, TV Guide.

KKR conquered another new world last week when it helped finance a winning $625 million bid by Rhode Island's Fleet/Norstar Financial Group for the failed Bank of New England (1990 assets: $22 billion). In its first bank purchase, KKR put up $283 million for its share of the bid, which beat offers from such giants as the Bank of Boston and San Francisco-based BankAmerica.

The triumph came the same day that KKR's crown jewel, RJR Nabisco, reported its first quarterly profit since the grand acquisitor bought it for $25 billion in 1989. RJR eked out a $5 million gain for the first quarter of 1991, in contrast to a $222 million loss for the same period a year ago. The improvement reflected RJR's drive to reduce its towering interest expense.

KKR may be less pleased when a long-awaited book by New York Times financial writer Sarah Bartlett hits stores later in May. Called The Money Machine and subtitled How KKR Manufactured Power and Profits, the work is said to be a scathing look at co-founder Henry Kravis and his notably secretive institution.