Investors in private equity have about $116 billion of their money trapped in around 1,200 underperforming “zombie” funds globally, according to a report by Preqin last year, and for that pleasure they are having to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars in management fees.

Yet the investors who put the money in seldom take action against the private equity firms mismanaging it. It is not as if investors lack the muscle. The fund documents, which refer to them as limited partners, empower them to kick out their general partner, the private equity firm running the fund - a process known as GP removal.