HgCapital Trust, a private equity investment trust, said today it made record proceeds of £52m (€75.5m) from sales last year, up 10% from the previous 12 months, and that the pipeline for new deals was improving following a slow end to last year.

Realisatons included the sale of FTE, an automotive parts supplier, from which the company made net profits of £18.4m, or 2.7 times the original cost of its investment, and £3m from Raymarine, a nautical electronics company, in which the company has made returns of 4.3 times cost and retains a £1.7m shareholding.