Candover's €1.3bn ($1.8bn) sale last month of Picard Surgelés, a French frozen food retailer, displayed all the ingredients that made 2004 a banner year for the European private equity industry.

Initially billed as a dual-track auction, with the company pursuing an initial public offering as well as a trade sale, the fickle equity capital markets proved no match for cash-rich buy-out funds with their easy access to debt finance. Industrial buyers did not even play a cameo role in the secondary buy-out when BC Partners, the eventual winner, found itself competing against a chorus of rival buy-out funds, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, PAI and Eurazeo.