KKR

In nineteen eighty-eight, KKR spotted an opening. RJR Nabisco cost twenty-five billion to buy. KKR had two billion in the bank. They borrowed twenty-one point seven billion from banks and used the company's own factories, brands, and cash flow as collateral for the debt that bought it. The math looked impossible. KKR moved fast. They fired thousands. Sold divisions. Stripped assets for cash. The company that once made cookies and cigarettes became a machine for servicing debt. Money that should have gone into factories went to banks instead. Every dollar had to count. Costs that seemed acceptable before became unaffordable. Then luck arrived.