Guys Hands, the chairman of Terra Firma Capital Partners, today insisted his firm was ready to speak about doing deals despite news earlier this week that it had delayed fundraising for a new buyout fund.

Speaking at the SuperInvestor conference in Paris today and responding to the article, Hands said: "We've got about €1 billion committed to invest, so those people out there that have deals, we'd love to see them. And as Mark Twain said, the reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated."