Private Equity Holding (PEH), the Swiss quoted trust, has reported its first quarterly profit in more than two years, after writedowns, debt and management problems pushed it close to collapse.

PEH made a Sfr4m (€2.6m) profit in the quarter, compared with a loss of Sfr34.8m in the same period last year. PEH's venture capital portfolio has taken a series of writedowns, but the worst seems to be over. In the quarter to the end of June 2003 the portfolio took a 5% writedown to Sfr254m, compared with a 62% writedown from Sfr1.1bn last year.