Sir John Bond, the former HSBC chairman, has been hired as a senior adviser by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to assist the American buyout firm’s expansion in Asia.
Sir John, who stepped down from the bank in May after 45 years and currently heads the board at Vodafone Group, becomes the latest high-profile hire from the financial services sector by the private equity community.
In May, Blackstone Group, the US buyout firm, appointed John Studzinski, former co-head of investment banking and markets at HSBC, as senior managing director. Elsewhere, Sir James Crosby, previously chief executive of HBOS, and Sir George Mathewson, the former chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, are both now at Bridgepoint. KKR recently opened an office in Hong Kong and last year brought in Sir Deryck Maughan, once chairman and chief executive of Citigroup International, to head its Asian operations.
The recruitment of Sir John will give KKR access to his extensive network of contacts in both financial services and government, as well as the strategic advice that took HSBC by acquisition to become Britain’s biggest bank by market capitalisation. Last year, KKR led the $15.3 billion (£8.06 billion) purchase of TDC, the former Danish telecoms monopoly, which become one of the largest leveraged buyouts conducted in Europe. More recently, it has backed the €3.3 billion (£2.23 billion) purchase of Pages Jaunes, the French telephone directory publisher, in conjunction with the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs, the €4 billion buyout of the forklift truck division of Linde, of Germany, also with Goldman, and the €8 billion acquisition of the semicondutor division of Philips, the Dutch electronics group.
Last year Lord Hollick, the Labour peer who for 31 years was head of United Business Media, was recruited by KKR. Analysts suggest Sir John’s appointment could signal an increased presence in financial services by KKR.
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