Post
In 2025, KKR acquired a majority stake in HealthCare Royalty Partners, a firm managing $3 billion in royalty assets.
March 12, 2026

In 2024 Blackstone paid $2.2 billion enterprise value for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, one of the
world's largest music royalty catalogs.

These are not bets. These are structural allocation decisions from two of the largest
alternative asset managers in the world.

When firms of this size move into royalties, it is worth understanding why…
Royalties offer something increasingly rare: returns that are not tied to valuations, multiples,
or the mood of public markets and returns that are naturally protected from inflation.

Royalty returns have a very low market correlation. Instead, they are tied to revenue. Real,
recurring, contracted revenue.

And in a world where equity markets swing on sentiment, interest rate cycles shake
traditional credit and the danger of inflation is back, that kind of stability is a deliberate
portfolio construction choice.

Both moves were concentrated in the pharma and music sectors, where royalty investing has
been established for decades. But there is a sector generating over EUR 1 trillion in recurring
annual revenues where institutional royalty capital has barely arrived.

Tech.

The thesis has been validated at the top from the likes of KKR and Blackstone, and in
European tech, the opportunity is still wide open.