Toby Lewis

The group’s chief executive Patrick Sayer has said it will grow its unlisted co-investment fund to between €2 billion and €3 billion emulating FTSE 100-listed rival 3i.

The venture-backed DVD rental business Lovefilm International has increased its number of subscribers to nearly a million after it acquired Amazon’s rival German and UK businesses as part of the deal.

The Nordic buyout firm has extended its bid for Securitas Direct after receiving limited shareholder acceptance for its bid. An independent review committee has opposed the offer.

EQT, the Nordic alternative asset manager, has sold a five year old Finnish investment five months after wide-ranging departures from its Finnish office.

Middle Eastern private equity firm HBG Holdings has sold a management company stake to a private equity fund of The National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, as Middle Eastern governments continue to buy into the asset class.

Arcapita Bank, the Bahrain investment firm, has bought a Texan gas-fired power station, which targets the same market as TXU, the subject of a $45bn buyout last year.

US buyout firm JC Flowers has been unable to sell the Dutch bank, despite agreeing a deal in August. The cancelled deal may dampen Flowers’ interest in UK bank Northern Rock and UK insurer Friends Provident.

Global buyout firm The Carlyle Group has combined travel website Rumbo with Orizonia in a joint venture alongside Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica.

Alliance Boots is expanding into China less than a year after US buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts took the company private alongside Stefano Pessina - beginning the emerging markets expansion plans cherished by the Boots executive chairman.

Ethos Private Equity has sold Tsebo Outsourcing Group having carried out a problematic disposal of a non-core on-flight catering business following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and ridden out price inflation in South Africa.