After three years and 11 days, you might have thought KKR had cause for a little celebration last week when it finally secured its US stock market listing.

Instead, investors might never have known that the momentous occasion - 34 years after KKR was founded by three former Bear Stearns bankers - was anything more than a routine day in the office. The firm's management did not ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, and the press was largely silent. KKR's shares drifted 3% lower on their first US trading day.