Activa Capital, the French buy-out firm founded in 2001, has made a final closing on its first fund at €162m ($201m) after more than 12 months of fundraising.

The firm had made a first closing at €90m in December 2002 and had hoped to finish raising the fund by mid-2003. Michael Diehl, one of Activa's four founding partners, said: "It was a tough environment for fundraising. But the process gathered momentum towards the end and we beat our target of €150m."