In April 2007, Henry Kravis declared that private equity was in "a golden age." Soon afterward, of course, the buyout business entered an ice age.

So it's hardly surprising that the initial public offering of the private equity titan Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. has been pushed back a year. What is a little surprising is that it has not been given up entirely.

K.K.R. Private Equity Investors, an affiliate of the firm that trades in Amsterdam, was to have merged with its parent and begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this year. Under that deal, shareholders would have held 21 percent of the merged entity, with K.K.R. executives holding the rest.

Today the affiliate announced that the merger would not happen until next year.

The delay was announced as K.K.R. Private Equity, or K.P.E., released results that showed a net investment loss of $27.2 million for its third quarter. Its net asset value fell to $18.85 per share at the end of September, from $24.36 at end of 2007.

"As the decline in K.P.E.'s quarterly net asset value evidences, some of our investments faced reduced valuations during the third quarter as a result of the extraordinary turbulence in the global capital markets," George Roberts, a co-founder of the private equity firm, said in a statement.

After much hoopla in 2007, the public debuts of private equity firms Blackstone Group and Fortress Investment Group quickly soured for investors. This year alone, shares of Blackstone are down 57 percent, while Fortress shares are off 68 percent.

Yet the K.K.R. public offering was always intended to be a little different, to access the markets as the firm transitions to becoming more of a diversified money manager and less of a buyout shop. There would have been no huge cash-outs for Kravis and Roberts and other insiders.

Investor demand for shares of private equity firms can't be very high at the moment. Shares of Blackstone are down 57 percent since January, while shares of Fortress are off 68 percent.

But staying private may be the only option for years to come. The K.P.E. affiliate went public in Amsterdam in May 2006 at $25 per share. It now trades for less than $5.