June 1 (Bloomberg) -- KKR & Co., the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, agreed to pay interest of 6 percentage points more than benchmark rates for loans to pay for its buyout of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s South Korean beer unit, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

New York-based KKR plans to borrow as much as $900 million in dollar loans paying about 600 basis points more than the London interbank offered rate and won loans paying the same spread above the certificate of deposit rate, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information is private. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Calyon, HSBC Holdings Plc, ING Groep NV, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Natixis SA, Nomura Holdings Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc agreed to back KKR’s bid for Oriental Brewery Co., people familiar with the talks said in April. Banco Santander SA, Hana Bank and WestLB AG have since joined the group.

KKR will pay AB InBev NV $1.8 billion for Seoul-based Oriental Brewery, the Leuven, Belgium-based beverage company said May 7. While the maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois beers gains funds to help pay down a $7 billion bridging loan, KKR gains a brewer that took market share from domestic rival Hite Brewery Co. last year, according to AB InBev.

KKR will fund about half the acquisition with equity and the other half with loans, Asia head Joseph Y. Bae told reporters in Seoul May 7, without being more specific. The company established a $4 billion fund focused on Asian investments in 2007.

Joshua Goldman-Brown, a Hong Kong-based external spokesman for KKR, declined to comment on the funding arrangements today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shelley Smith in Hong Kong at ssmith118@bloomberg.netJungmin Hong in Seoul at jhong47@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 31, 2009 23:50 EDT