Isis Capital has nearly trebled its investment on bonmarché, the UK womenswear retailer, with the sale of its interest to Peacock Group, another UK retailer, for almost 2.5 times its initial investment in just 12 months.

Isis, the private equity business of specialist UK investment firm Friends Ivory & Sime, invested £7.3m (€11.5m) in bonmarché in July 2001, acquiring 20% of the company's equity and some debt obligation. Isis placed one of its investment directors, Kevin Whittle, on the bonmarché board of directors. At the same time, Bank of Scotland invested £34m in bank loans and credits.