Finama Private equity, the buy-out arm of French insurance giant Groupama, has raised €85m ($84m) for its first direct investment fund and is confident it will soon reach its target of €100m.

Pierre-Michel Deleglise, a partner with Finama Private Equity, said a fifth of the commitments had been made by third parties. He said: "These are French, mid-sized institutional investors." The bulk of the commitments raised to date, - 70% of them - have come from Groupama. The remaining 10% have come from regional mutual funds that are associated with Groupama but financially independent from it.