Alliance Boots, Europe's biggest buyout and a bellwether for the top end of the buyout market, this morning defied critics of the asset class with a strong set of results which showed that it had cut more than a third off its financing costs thanks to favourable movements in interest rates that have helped cut a chunk off its £9bn (€10.5bn) debt.

The UK pharmaceutical giant, which was bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and long-term top executive Stefano Pessina in 2007 for £11.2bn, produced another strong set of results which included a third consecutive year of double-digit profit growth. Crucially it showed that the cost of financing its debt fell by 39% in the 12 months to March.