Doughty Hanson was among the first buyout groups to restructure a portfolio company. It injected £15m (€16.6m) on top of its initial £105m investment into mobile-phone logistics company 20:20 Mobile in July to persuade lenders to reduce the company’s debt by more than two thirds.

Doughty lost control of the company, which is the UK's largest supplier of mobile phones, as part of the deal. This reduced its stake to 45%, with its banks, which included Royal Bank of Scotland, also taking a 45% stake. The rest was held by management. In exchange for the equity, the banks reduced the company's debt from £315m to £99m. Doughty Hanson and RBS declined to comment for this article.