Toby Lewis

European mid-market firm Industri Kapital has made its second acquisition of the year.

Marcel Herter is the latest of a number of high-ranking investment bankers to leave a job in leveraged finance recently.

The global mid-market buyout firm attracted interest nearly double its planned €5bn target, but it scaled back the fund giving existing limited partners priority.

The global bank has cut half the members of its 27-strong team. Deal fees from private equity have collapsed on the back of the credit crunch, as banks have pulled back from larger buyout deals.

Industry figures have come out in defence both of financial engineering and the range and diversity of the asset class saying it does not depend on leverage for returns.

The UK mid-market firm has paid only a seven times profit multiple to acquire an engineering company dependent on the oil and gas sector.

Google luminary Douglas Merrill has been recruited by Terra Firma to oversee EMI’s digital music strategy in a newly formed digital music division, as the UK buyout firm’s cost-cutting continues apace.

Investment banking revenues from buyout firms have plummeted and deal volume was down by 65 percent in a malignant quarter for mega-buyout firms.

The firm’s realisation of its 25 percent stake in dairy company Senoble and its acquisition of a holding in insurer Hyperion are another instance of its increasing activity in growth capital.

The number of companies being exited into receivership rose to it highest level in four years as the average value of buyout firm exits dropped by slightly more than 25 percent.