Eurazeo, the Paris-listed private equity firm, boosted profits 11% to €93.3m ($118.2m) in the first half despite ploughing almost €1.2bn of cash into new deals including Europcar and an Italian investment bank run by ex-Lazard dealmaker Gerardo Braggiotti.

Profits were up from €84.1m in the same period last year. This excludes last year's one-off €2.4bn recapitalisation of Eutelsat, the satellite communications group, which boosted last year's first half profits to €207.7m.