U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is reconsidering its plan to list in New York, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

KKR, which had planned to merge its operation with Euronext-listed KKR Private Equity Investors and list the combined operation on the New York Stock Exchange, is now considering a plan in which the companies would merge without listing, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The alternative plan would help the company avoid a lengthy registration process and requirements of the NYSE, the report said.

New York-based KKR, co-founded by buyout king Henry Kravis, announced plans to take itself public just prior to the markets plunging.

The private equity industry has been struggling with the absence of leverage for new deals, as well as troubled portfolio companies and investors hurt by a fall in equities.

Rival Blackstone , the only other major U.S. private equity firm to go public, is now trading at around $11.15 -- a fraction of its June 2007 IPO value of $31 a share.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Megan Davies; Editing Bernard Orr)

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