One of the biggest casualties of the economic downturn has been the humble initial public offering, for years the exit route of choice for private equity firms. Returning a company to the public markets allowed buyout firms to retain an equity interest in the business if desired, and also provided a public seal of approval for a job well done in building a company.

Yet, since the start of last year, there have been just two European IPOs of $50m (€38m) or more that were backed by private equity firms, a sign of how unattractive the public markets have become as an exit route. Financial sponsors have either refrained from selling assets due to lower valuations, or turned to alternative exit routes opportunistically or when forced by circumstance. The buyers of such assets have generally been other private equity firms or corporates.