Barclays Private Equity stands to make around £178m (€266m) from the flotation of Admiral Group, the UK car insurer, in which it owns a 33% stake. It has already realised £50m from earlier sales of its investment.

Barclays invested £20m for a majoirty stake in the 1999 management buy-out of Admiral, which runs the Diamond and Elephant.co.uk brands.