KBRA Expands Global Footprint With Opening of Its First Asia-Pacific Office in Tokyo

KBRA, a global full-service credit rating agency, is pleased to announce a key milestone in its continuing international expansion: the opening of a new office in Tokyo, Japan.

As the company’s first outpost in the Asia-Pacific region, KBRA’s new base in Tokyo reflects the firm’s exponential growth over the last few years as a global thought leader, innovator, and first mover in the ratings of private credit and fund finance instruments. This, in turn, has led KBRA to strengthen its presence in the region and deepen ties with both our Asia based clients as well as Japan’s sophisticated private credit and capital markets investor base.

Tokyo is the latest addition to KBRA’s growing footprint, which now includes seven offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In addition to four offices in the U.S.—in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and a Chicago office which opened in 2023—KBRA also has an office in Dublin, Ireland, which opened in 2017, and a London headquarters that opened in 2019.

To support its expansion in Japan, KBRA is pleased to welcome several key appointments. Yuuichi Hino joins as Head of Compliance for Japan, bringing extensive experience navigating Japan’s regulatory environment. Miki Monroe Sheridan also joins as Head of Business Development, where she will lead engagement efforts with local market participants and further strengthen KBRA’s regional partnerships. Additionally, Peter Connolly, Senior Director in the Structured Credit team, will relocate from KBRA’s New York office to Tokyo to help support analytical coverage and client engagement.

“We are thrilled to announce our new office in Tokyo, which marks a significant step forward as KBRA extends its reach globally to provide the APAC region’s expanding group of institutional investors with our best-in-class research and independent, thoughtful insight, as well as our data-driven analysis in private credit, structured finance, and other areas of the capital markets,” said Kate Kennedy, Co-Head of Business Development at KBRA. “We look forward to building bridges with Asia based market players and bringing our analytical consistency, transparency, and perspective to several rapidly growing and often complex global credit market sectors.”

Across the entire credit market universe—including structured finance, private credit, fund finance, corporates, financial institutions, sovereigns, insurance companies, and other sectors—KBRA rates more than $3.8 trillion in issuance across more than 80,000 ratings on over 6,300 rated entities.

KBRA is a leader in private markets and fund-finance credit ratings and assessments. The firm has performed more than 3,500 credit assessments or credit ratings for middle market borrowers in private credit portfolios. In addition, KBRA has issued ratings for over 250 fund finance transactions and more than 200 private asset-backed finance transactions, as well as over 200 feeder note transactions and 34 BDCs. KBRA also maintains credit ratings on 54 of the world’s leading private asset managers and rates more than 100 middle market and private credit CLOs and dozens of other private credit, private equity, or secondaries facilities.

To learn more about what sets KBRA’s ratings apart, visit www.engagewith.kbra.com.

Disclaimer:

The information in this release reflects the company’s current business status and does not reflect authorization by the JFSA as a credit rating agency, nor is it intended to imply that KBRA Japan is authorized by the JFSA. KBRA Japan is currently seeking such authorization, but approval has not yet been granted. The contents of this release are subject to change, and the company will provide updates as appropriate.

About KBRA

KBRA, one of the major credit rating agencies, is registered in the U.S., EU, and the UK. KBRA is recognized as a Qualified Rating Agency in Taiwan and is also a Designated Rating Organization for structured finance ratings in Canada. As a full-service credit rating agency, investors can use KBRA ratings for regulatory capital purposes in multiple jurisdictions.

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