Cramer on BloggingStocks: KKR takes advantage

Posted Jul 28th 2008 8:45AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Daimler (DAI), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Private Equity, Market Matters, Blackstone Group L.P (BX), Initial Public Offerings, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says KKR will join the list of buyout firms that fleece the small investor by going public.

Just what we need, a private-equity firm to go public. That worked just great with Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG) (Cramer's Take), and it was terrific with Blackstone (NYSE: BX) (Cramer's Take). At least this one is some sort of reverse merger that might not inflict too much pain on the public.

Of course, folks in this business are displaying their usual lack of shame. It would be an excellent time for them to have a good reason beyond employee retention; I mean if you are making all of that money, what's the issue with retention? It would also be terrific if they were doing well, but there hasn't been a deal in so long that it would be a bit of an oddity if they were doing anything other than making a lot of fees.

But Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a storied lot, so I figure the public will lap it up and all will be well until the losses start.

Or maybe this will be the one that's in the blue moon and the public will not be pants'd by the really smart bankers.

Who knows, maybe we will hear soon from Cerberus, because they are always saying things are going great, as if Chrysler could be doing swimmingly even as Daimler (NYSE: DAI) (Cramer's Take), Ford (NYSE: F) (Cramer's Take) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) (Cramer's Take) say things are terrible. I wouldn't put it past those guys, though. And when I look at their portfolio on the Web, I am just shocked that they are even in business.

We often talk about when we are at a bottom, and this filing by KKR is one of those anecdotes that says, "Don't count on it, more pain ahead." Maybe this will be the week where unemployment is so awful that we will remember it as: "Yeah, then KKR announced its deal, which was right at the beginning of the big recession, just like it tried to sneak in right at the end of the private-equity boom."

Throughout my life I have always marveled that the smartest thing the so-called smart people on Wall Street do is take advantage of the little people who really just want to make a little money in the market. It is what these Wall Street folks do best.

I guess it is time for them to shine again.

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RELATED LINKS:
KKR Set to Go Public
Secrets of Private Equity
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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Tags: blckstone, bx, dai, f, featured, fig, fortress investment, FortressInvestment, gm, ipo, jim cramer, JimCramer, KKR, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, KohlbergKravisRoberts, private equity, PrivateEquity

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-28-2008 @ 10:14AM

Tom Gilmore said...

I can't believe it when I heard Erin Burnett this morning say that "if all Americans drove Hondas, our country would save a million gallons of gas everyday". Then Mark Haines said to her "buy Japan". She said that Honda builds plants in the US, therefore the implication is that it is good for the US economy.

I am sure a lot of GM and Ford unemployed autoworkers are glad that she feels this way! Wake up America! Where do you think the net profits from these foreign auto makers go? Not to the US companies.

The problem is the younger generation that Erin comes from sees nothing wrong with purchasing foreign cars and even promotes it on shows like yours. Watch GM and Ford shares sink more today after statements like that. The damage to the US economy will continue to evaoporate with personal opinions like what Erin shares with the country. She should report the news and not envoke her baised opinion.

7-28-2008 @ 11:33AM

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