Candover has sold Pandrol, a railway track company, to Delachaux for £165m (€240m) in the UK-listed buy-out firm's final exit from a 1999 buy-out of three businesses from Charter, the international engineering company.

Colin Buffin, managing director of Candover, the UK-listed buy-out firm, said: "We always thought that, as the rail industry becomes more consolidated, a trade buyer would find Pandrol an attractive asset. We didn't run an auction, Delachaux approached us around four months ago."