CapMan, the Finnish and Nordic private equity firm, has closed its seventh fund at €253m ($265m) having launched it only one year ago, despite difficult conditions under which fundraising in Europe fell by an estimated one third.

Ari Tolppanen, the chief executive of CapMan, said: "Despite the difficult fundraising environment, we have succeeded in raising the largest fund in the history of CapMan." Buy-out funds raised only €11bn in the first three quarters of 2002, compared with €22bn in the whole of 2001, according to the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.