The chairman of Nordic buyout firm IK Investment Partners said that proposed regulation of the European private equity industry, if passed as it stands today, could wipe out between two-thirds and three-quarters of European firms.

"If it's implemented the way it was drafted today, two-thirds of us would immediately stop our activities," Björn Saven, chairman of IK Investment Partners said, calling the legislation "one of the biggest own goals" he's ever seen.