Doughty Hanson, an independent private equity firm, is to return €175m ($227.5m) to investors in its latest private equity fund in one of the fastest refinancings ever.

The firm is recapitalising Saft, a designer and manufacturer of high-tech battery systems, to return one-tenth of the fund's committed capital just one month after the fund formally closed and only a year after Doughty bought the firm.