The AA pension fund, at the centre of trade union concerns about private equity asset-strippers, has backed the industry with its members' money by investing in the asset class for the first time.

The buyout of the UK motorists' group in 2004 by CVC Capital Partners and Permira, which cut its 10,000 staff by a third, according to the GMB trade union, triggered the debate between workers, politicians and the buyout industry.