Private equity firms have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent months as iconic deals struck in the industry’s boom era came unstuck.

Terra Firma, the UK buyout group run by Guy Hands, this month lost a court battle with Citigroup over its role in the $5.9bn acquisition of music label EMI Group in 2007. EMI has twice received capital injections from Terra Firma in the past two years to avoid breaching covenants on its loan from Citigroup, and is likely to need further "equity cures" in future, according to Terra Firma's holding vehicle Maltby Capital.