Jon Moulton, the veteran private equity investor and chairman of Better Capital, has criticised the practice of independent due diligence on sales of companies, calling the process “completely useless”.

Moulton rounded on the practice of vendor due diligence saying that while they are may be a money spinner for financial services firms, "they are dangerous to rely on". He made the comments in a speech at trade magazine Legal Week's Private equity forum in London yesterday.