KKR Financial exits mortgage related business

The sad fate of the Carlyle Group's listed bond fund focused attention, fairly or not, on other funds listed by top private equity firms. KKR Financial seems to be moving aggressively to exit the real estate-related business. The REIT has a deal to sell a controlling stake to Rock Capital 2, according to Financial News Online. KKR Financial stopped investing in mortgage-related investments in May of last year. It has since been working to wind down the fund with a minimum amount of pain. Financial News Online notes the company wrote off its entire mortgage-related exposure in August. The board has just agreed to take a $5.5 million charge. It also aims to raise $250 million via an offering to be led by Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.  

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