The new chief executive of 3i Group has played down market expectations of a bid for the company, as the UK-listed private equity firm revealed it had made a positive start on plans to deleverage its balance sheet by £1bn (€1.1bn) before the middle of next year.

In a conference call this morning, in which he discussed the group's pre-close statement for the 11 months to the end of February, Michael Queen, 3i's chief executive, denied he had received expressions of interest from bidders, adding that had that been the case, the group would have needed to make a statement to the market.