Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners, the private equity boutique set up last year by the eponymous French corporate finance and asset management firm, has finalised its first transaction by taking a 70% stake in Bonpoint, a French family-run children's clothing retailer.

The deal, a leveraged buy-out involving the management, comes almost exactly one year after the firm created the Edmond de Rothschild LBO Fund and three months after its first closing in July with €87m ($101m). Eric de Montgolfier, managing partner, said Rothschild Capital Partners had hired Altium Capital, a placement agent, to advise it on the next stage of the fund raising, with the aim of bringing the total amount up to €200m during 2004.