Fund management grandee Howard Flight has teamed up with private equity chief Adrian de Ferranti to launch a venture that will acquire European manufacturing businesses and merge them with developing Chinese competitors.

The new company, Ferranti Capital, recently signed its first deal of a pipeline it estimates at £100m (€152m). It is in talks with seed investors to raise between £30m and £50m and will list the fund on London's Alternative Investment Market this year. The fund may grow depending on dealflow.