In 2020, KKR & Co. Inc.'s global fundraising increased 72% year over year to reach a firm record of $44 billion, with Asia strategies the driver, representing about 40%, or $17 billion, of the total.

Scott Nuttall, co-president, co-COO and director, explained on an earnings call Feb. 9 that Asia emerged from the pandemic more quickly than other parts of the world. "And so we are kind of seeing more regular activity levels on the ground in a number of those markets."

The firm highlighted the growth of its real estate platform, which increased assets under management to $25 billion, from $9 billion the prior year, "driven by new capital raised in our Asia and Americas opportunistic strategies as well as core-plus real estate," added Craig Larson, partner and head of investor relations. Additionally, Asia real estate and Asia infrastructure funds both held final closes in the 2020 fourth quarter.

In terms of performance, in 2020 its flagship private equity funds returned 32%, "well ahead of the 17% and 18% total return figures of the MSCI World and S&P 500 indices," Larson said, adding that returns were driven mainly by technology-oriented investments.

Total AUM rose 20% year over year to $252 billion. "We had a strong finish to a solid year," Larson said.

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Officials fielded analyst questions on KKR's recently closed $4.7 billion buyout of insurance company Global Atlantic Financial Group Ltd. The acquisition has a pro forma impact on KKR's AUM, increasing it 36% to $342 billion, officials said.

"It meaningfully expands our base of permanent capital, further diversifies and scales our business and significantly grows our position within the insurance industry," Nuttall said.

Over the next two years, KKR intends to raise capital for about 20 additional strategies, including healthcare and technology growth, dislocation, private real estate investment trusts, real estate credit, collateralized loan obligations and hedge fund partnerships.

Given the potential to scale the assets of Global Atlantic, management fees coming across the existing platform and opportunities to increase the breadth of products, "we feel really good that we should be able to comfortably exceed $2 per share of [fee-related earnings] in 2022," Nuttall said.

Executives were also upbeat on exits, despite frothy markets. CFO Robert Lewin said KKR has deals that are signed and/or closed that represent more than $375 million of revenue in the first quarter.

"We're very constructive on the backdrop for monetizations broadly," Nuttall added. "And it is across the board. There's M&A, there's strategic sales, there are sales to sponsors, there's leverage recaps, dividends. So a lot of different opportunities for us to monetize ... despite the overall valuation environment, we continue to be very active in terms of deployment."