By Chibuike Oguh

(Reuters) – KKR & Co (NYSE:) Inc said on Monday it has elevated its co-presidents Scott Nuttall and Joseph Bae to co-chief executive officers, succeeding the storied private equity firm’s billionaire co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts.

This transition is a long-awaited one and will not surprise investors. KKR appointed Bae (49) and Nuttall (48) as co-presidents for 2017. Monday was KKR’s day. Roberts, 78 and Kravis, 77 were still involved in managing the firm.

KKR stated that KKR’s shares increased by three times and its assets under management and distributable income have more than doubled since Bae and Nuttall were officially made Kravis’ and Roberts’ top lieutenants in 2004.

Nuttall, Bae and others face a difficult task in trying to replicate the working relationships of Kravis Roberts and Kravis, who were cousins and co-founders of KKR 45 year ago. Their names were included in KKR’s acronym. They also maintained a close-knit Wall Street culture and maintained a firm grip. This helped create the leveraged buying industry.

Blackstone Group Inc CEO Stephen Schwarzman (NYSE:) Inc, 74, is the last founder of a large publicly traded private equity company to not have resigned his position as chief executive. Jonathan Gray is the president and chief operational officer. He has been following Schwarzman for many years.

For 2018, Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:) Inc CEO Kewsong Lee replaced co-founders William Conway, David Rubenstein and Daniel D’Aniello. Ares Management (NYSE) Corp CEO Michael Arougheti succeeds co-founder Tony Ressler. Apollo Global Management (NYSE) Inc Co-founder Marc Rowan assumed the role of CEO in March. He replaced Leon Black, who resigned after being scrutinized over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Bae and Nuttall both joined KKR as members in 1996. Nuttall was a Blackstone employee for less than 2 years, and Bae was a similar length. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE 🙂 is its principal investment group.

Nuttall assisted in making KKR publicly listed. The process involved merging the firm in 2009 with an Amsterdam-listed mutual fund and moving the listing from Amsterdam to New York in 2010. Nuttall was a regular on the quarterly earnings calls with Wall Street analysts. He also managed KKR’s capital markets and credit.

Bae was the driving force behind KKR’s Asia expansion, which made the company one of the most prominent U.S. equity investors. The Korean-American dealmaker was also a member of the global investment committees for KKR’s private equity company.

KKR has grown from a small $30 million fund in 1978 and now manages more than $429Billion. This was due to the investment of money from many institutional investors, such as sovereign wealth funds and pension plans. They include private equity and real estate as well as corporate credit and hedge fund assets.

KKR was first recognized for its $22.5 billion leveraged acquisition of RJR Nabisco, which took place in 1988. The battle is immortalized in “Barbarians At the Gate.” Its most recent investments include ridesharing startups Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:), Wella AG beauty product manufacturer and Axel Springer SE media group.

Forbes reports that Roberts and Kravis are worth an average of $9.1 and $8.6 trillion, respectively.

KKR announced Monday that it will take measures to end its dual-class shareholder structure. Apollo was next, and Carlyle was first to make this 2019 as a publicly traded private equity company.

KKR announced that all the major matters, such as election of board members and other important topics will now be open to common shareholders. The company stated that the complex network of mergers among KKR entities will enable this to happen by 2026.