Montagu Private Equity has completed the largest fundraising to have taken place in Europe since the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, shrugging off poor market conditions to secure its upper limit of €2.5bn from investors in little more than six months. The announcement brings new hope to Europe’s private equity industry, which is expected to launch a surge of large fundraisings in the coming year.

The mid-market firm was oversubscribed for its fourth offering, which had been targeting €2bn, despite the timing of the effort which coincided with an eight-year low for European fundraising.