BC Partners: The UK buyout firm has been preparing a return to the fundraising market since last year after a hiring spree for its investor relations division. This saw the group recruit Goldman Sachs’ former head of financial sponsor coverage, Charlie Bott, last year to lead its effort.

The firm aims to wrap up a first close for its fundraising by the end of the year, according to investor sources. This has followed a wave of exits this year, which has returned €2bn to investors so far in 2010. The firm has invested more than €2bn since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in eight deals. The firm was plucked out of collapsed UK investment bank Barings in the 1990s. It has been under new management since 2007, when it appointed co-chairmen Raymond Svider and Francesco Loredan to lead the firm. Loredan is set to retire in 2012.