NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR & Co

Inc ( KKR ) said on Wednesday its first-quarter adjusted net

income jumped 20% year-on-year, driven by strong management and

transaction fees as well as earnings from its annuities

business.

KKR's adjusted net income rose to $863.7 million from $719.3

million a year earlier. That resulted in adjusted net income per

share of 97 cents, which was slightly ahead of the average

analyst estimate of 96 cents, according to LSEG data.

Fee-related earnings rose 22% to $668.7 million, buoyed by

income KKR generates from fees associated with managing $578

billion worth of total assets in addition to transaction fees

from arranging financing from its own deals.

KKR's earnings from investing the capital of its annuities

business Global Atlantic rose 33% to $273 million. During the

quarter, KKR completed the $2.7 billion deal to acquire the

remaining 37% stake in Global Atlantic that it doesn't already

own.

Dividends from KKR's "strategic holdings", which are mostly

private equity investments that it plans to hold for relatively

longer periods, reached $20.7 million in the quarter.

KKR's private equity portfolio appreciated by 5%,

opportunistic real estate funds gained 1%, and leveraged credit

funds added 3%.

By contrast, Blackstone reported that its corporate

private equity funds appreciated by 3.4%, liquid credit funds

gained 2.5%, and opportunistic real estate funds were flat.

KKR's net income under generally accepted accounting

principles more than doubled to $682.2 million, driven by growth

in revenues from Global Atlantic.

It raised $31 billion of new capital, invested $14 billion,

retained $98 billion of unspent capital, and declared a

quarterly dividend of 17.5 cents.