KKR, a global investment firm, announced that funds and accounts managed by its credit business have led the purchase of a $7.2 billion portfolio of super-prime recreational vehicle (RV) loans from BMO Bank, part of BMO Financial Group. Concurrently with the sale, BMO purchased approximately $6.4 billion of senior notes collateralized by the sold loans. BMO will remain the servicer of the loans and will continue to originate and manage RV loans, with no expected impact to dealers, borrowers and employees.
This transaction aligns with KKR’s Asset-Based Finance (ABF) strategy, which focuses on privately originated and negotiated credit investments that are backed by large and diversified pools of financial and hard assets, offering diversification to traditional corporate credit and attractive risk-adjusted returns. KKR has made 73 ABF investments globally since 2016 through a combination of portfolio acquisitions, platform investments and structured investments. The firm has approximately $47 billion in ABF assets under management and a team of more than 50 professionals directly involved in the ABF effort globally.
“This investment directly highlights the strength and scale of our Asset-Based Finance business, which has experienced unprecedented growth alongside the rapid expansion of this market,” Dan Pietrzak, global head of private credit at KKR, said.
“We look forward to continuing to build on our 30-year history as a leading provider of consumer financing in the recreational market and strong network of dealer relationships across the United States,” Tami Farrow, head U.S. indirect lending at BMO, said. “This transaction enables us to further optimize BMO’s balance sheet to support future growth across the bank.”
“We are proud to serve as a strategic partner to banks as they focus on optimizing their balance sheets” Avi Korn and Chris Mellia, co-heads of U.S. asset-based finance at KKR, said. “We believe this portfolio of high-quality, fixed rate assets is a strong fit for our long-term private capital and yet another example of the compelling opportunity set that we’re seeing in asset-based finance.”
KKR’s investment comes from its credit funds and accounts. Kennedy Lewis Investment Management also participated in the transaction, alongside KKR and other investors.
