The latest figures from the Centre for Management Buy-Out Research (CMBOR), to the end of the third quarter, highlight the particularly dramatic subsidence in the sub-£5m (€8m) bracket of buy-outs and buy-ins.

Howard Shore's Puma funds are looking to fill the funding vacuum in the UK. Buy-outs in Europe and new ventures do not lack for funding, but in the UK the appetite for buy-outs at this level is almost sated.