West Private Equity, the European arm of WestLB, has acquired Asquith Court Holdings, the UK's largest private nurseries and independent day schools group for £66m (€105.8m).

The deal is a secondary sale from a syndicate of private equity investors, which reads like a Who's Who of the UK private equity scene, including Botts & Co, Apax Partners, Electra and Candover. Secondary sales, where a private equity firm sells an investment on to another private equity firm, increased dramatically in the second half of last year, as initial public offerings and trade sales dried up.