The largest private equity-listed fund of funds has paid down just under a quarter of its debt in the strongest evidence yet that buyout firms are beginning to return large sums of cash to their investors after a lengthy exit drought.

Euronext-listed Conversus Capital, which manages nearly $2bn former private equity fund assets of Bank of America, said in its first quarter results out yesterday afternoon, that it had paid down debt by 24% in the first three months of this year as $91m was paid back to the company by its the private equity fund it invests in. This was triple the amount it received in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Dealogic.