KKR's deal maker and truffle hunter
Earlier this year, private-equity investor Joseph Bae helped his firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts seal the $1.8bn (€1.2bn) acquisition of Korea's second-largest beer maker, Oriental Brewery. Earlier this month, he aided in a decidedly posher acquisition.
The takeover target: a 760-gram, or 27-ounce, white truffle from the city of Alba, in Italy's northern Piedmont region, considered by many to have the best tartufo bianco in the world. The takeover price: HK$1 million, or about $129,000.
Bae's consortium included five other wealthy Hong Kong residents seated at his table enjoying a special eight-course truffle meal held at Crown Wine Cellars and prepared by Italian chef Massimo Camia. (One attendee gushed over the mashed potatoes with gorgonzola and white truffles.)
On Nov. 8, Bae's group beat out a competing HK$900,000 offer from a group of Italians, bidding simultaneously from their native land.
After the contest, the esteemed truffle was loaded onto a plane and flown immediately to Hong Kong.
No, this wasn't a mere display of culinary indulgence. All proceeds for the truffle sale went to support three children's charities -- the Changing Young Lives Foundation and Mother's Choice in Hong Kong and the village of Tempera, Italy, which will use the funds to rebuild a children's nursery destroyed in a recent earthquake.
Despite the rebound in global financial markets, truffle prices apparently remain off their historical highs.
The $129,000 transaction still pales behind the record $330,000 Macau casino mogel Stanley Ho paid for a giant white truffle in late 2007.
Bae isn't saying what he and his unnamed truffle mates will do with the delicacy. One guess: It won't be served with a six-pack of Korean beer.
--By laura.santini@wsj.com
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