A planned $1.6 billion management buyout by private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP and the founder of Taiwanese components maker Yageo has raised the hackles of the island's notoriously picky regulators, setting it up for a rough road to approval. Not well-disposed in the best of times toward private equity firms and seeing them as only interested in making a quick buck, Taiwan's regulators took the unusual step of hauling in Yageo's founder and chairman, Pierre Chen, for a three-hour personal grilling on the deal on April 8. "The deal is affecting markets in a substantial way. We will take a serious look at it and have extensive discussions once we have all of the information we need," said a high-ranking official of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), who did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. KKR is treading a well-worn path through the thick and often prickly undergrowth of market regulation in Taiwan, an area the American Chamber of Commerce called "inconsistent" in a report earlier this year.
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