RJR Nabisco LBO: financial specifics, entry and exit?

I've been trying to find KKR's IRR from this LBO. Figured this information would be fairly easy to find, but can anyone point me toward the financial specifics of this transaction (entry, exit)?

7 Comments
 

In the afterward to Barbarians at the Gate, they say KKR "swapped" their RJR shares for shares in a different LBO. I have no idea what exactly that's supposed to mean but I imagine that would make finding the exact entry and exit prices difficult. In addition, they ended up injecting more equity capital to help buy out their resetting preferreds.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

KKR got rid of their RJR shares by exchanging them with that of Borden Inc when they took that over.

Some specifics for the exit was:

1st exchange with Borden: 238 million shares of RJR for 69.5% of Borden
RJR IPO: 19.9% or 51.75 million shares @ $24.5/share 2nd exchange with Borden: 119 million RJR shares for remaining shares of Borden

I'll try to give more specifics later but right now I have to go, I got them from this book http://www.amazon.com/New-Financial-Capitalists-Kohlberg-Corporate/dp/0521642604

Hope that helps

People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people Jeremy
 

Also on Wikipedia, if you search for KKR there is a section called "Aftermath of RJR Nabisco LBO."

Looks like they initially had put in $1.5B and then later put in another $1.7B. Then they exchanged most of it out for Borden and some in an IPO to further pay down debt and ended up selling Borden for $1.4B.

So it appears they actually lost $1.8B in this whole ordeal, but they probably took some special dividends out for themselves or perhaps paid some fees to themselves...or maybe they made a lot of profit out of Borden.

Does anybody else know what happened? I also would like to calculate the IRR of the RJR LBO.

 

Exercitationem corporis ratione rerum ut sit. Ducimus exercitationem ut consequatur quia est.

Et sed doloremque molestias necessitatibus non. Facere mollitia similique dolorum.

Est dolores beatae eaque qui. Dolorum deleniti ipsa quae praesentium tempore consectetur.

Harum quis minus similique corporis. Sed dolores aut id quia. In quidem eum eveniet.

"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people."

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Private Equity

  • The Riverside Company 99.6%
  • Blackstone Group 99.3%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 98.9%
  • Warburg Pincus 98.5%
  • Vista Equity Partners 98.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Private Equity

  • Blackstone Group 99.6%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 99.2%
  • The Riverside Company 98.9%
  • Ardian 98.5%
  • Warburg Pincus 98.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Private Equity

  • Bain Capital 99.6%
  • The Riverside Company 99.3%
  • Blackstone Group 98.9%
  • Starwood Capital Group 98.5%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 98.1%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Private Equity

  • Principal (9) $653
  • Director/MD (24) $547
  • Vice President (99) $363
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (105) $280
  • 2nd Year Associate (235) $272
  • 1st Year Associate (412) $231
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (33) $157
  • 2nd Year Analyst (97) $134
  • 1st Year Analyst (272) $124
  • Intern/Summer Associate (38) $81
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (356) $61
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”