KKR May Invest More Than $1B In Japan’s Renesas Electronics

By David Zielenziger | August 29 2012 8:56 AM

Legendary private equity investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (NYSE: KKR) may seek to acquire control of Japan's Renesas Electronics (Tokyo: 6723) for a 100 million yen (US $1.27 billion) investment, which would be its largest in Japan, financial news agencies reported.

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Renesas shares jumped 35 percent in Wednesday trading in Tokyo.

A giant maker of logic chips that was created in 2002 from units of Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo: 6501), Mitsubishi Electric (Tokyo" 6723) and NEC Corp. (6701 JP), Renesas has been seeking outside fund. Earlier this year, memory chip maker Elpida Memory (Tokyo: 6665) collapsed and later agreed to be acquired by Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), of Boise, Ida., the No. 1 U.S. maker of memory chips.

KKR, of New York, has made several other investments in U.S. technology companies, investing in Sun Microsystems Inc., the server maker acquired by Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), the No. 1 database developer, in 2010, as well as in Eastman Kodak Co. (Pink: EKDKQ), which collapsed last January.

Shares of KKR closed Tuesday at $14.20.

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