For the first time in years, private equity firms have options. The third quarter saw the highest level of European financial sponsor portfolio company sales in nearly two years and a clutch of headline-grabbing deals have seen the IPO markets spring back to health.

To add to that, dividend recapitalisations - which allow sponsors to extract capital from their assets through refinancings - have also soared, meaning that there are other ways of securing a return on an investment even if sale processes fail.