Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity has made 4.7 times its investment in Xyratex, an information storage company, by selling its minority stake to HgCapital.

Aberdeen said it had made an annualised return of 45% on its £5m (€7m) investment. Xyratex was a management buy-out from IBM at the end of 1994. The company considered an initial public offering on the NeuerMarkt in 2000, and again on Nasdaq last June. After market conditions left both IPOs infeasible, Xyratex retained Citigroup to run an auction.