Luke Montgomery - Bernstein Research
Analyst · Luke Montgomery with Bernstein Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead
Great, thanks. Good morning. Big picture question, I think clearly investors are worried about an implosion of credit in China and the potential need for China to recapitalize its banking system, devalue the currency, and the implications of that for global risk asset prices. I think it's a view you share, to a degree, based on Mr. McVeigh's commentary on your website. And I think, of course, most of that is still to come, but you also cited record deployment in the credit business in Q4. So, I'm just wondering how you're thinking about managing risk and navigating the global macro pitfalls as you ramp up deployment in credit.
Scott C. Nuttall - Member & Head of Global Capital and Asset Management Group, KKR & Co. LP: Sure. I think first, Luke, on China in particular, it's important to understand, we have not done much in credit in China to date. We actually just announced a joint venture which will hopefully set us up to be able to take advantage of what is happening in China, from a direct lending standpoint and otherwise. But our exposure in China today is on the private equity front and in some real estate, but relatively small, and those companies, as I mentioned, are performing well. I'd say more broadly in credit, in terms of the deployment opportunity, it's quite broad-based. One of the great things about this market environment, we are seeing significantly enhanced pipelines in direct lending, mezzanine and special situations on a global basis. Part of that is in Asia, which will be in effect the fallout from the slowdown in the Chinese economy on companies and countries outside of China. But the larger percentage of it is the U.S. and Europe. And so I mentioned the deployment is up significantly, the capital raising is up, our dry powder is at the highest levels ever, and we feel really well positioned to take advantage of that, and that's everything from senior secured direct lending to middle-market corporates in the U.S. and Europe, all the way through to rescue capital for companies on a global basis.