The Carlyle Group, the US buyout firm, has put aside a $100m (€74m) loan to help ensure that the fixed income fund it floated less than two months ago can meet its margin calls after being hit by shockwaves from the US mortgage-backed debt crisis.

Carlyle Capital Corp, which raised roughly $300m in a cut-price and downsized flotation on Euronext early last month, revealed in a statement today that the fair value of its underlying assets "has declined due to diminished demand for these securities in the market".