Nicholas Ferguson, chairman of SVG Capital, a UK-quoted investment trust, will over the next decade commit up to €3.8bn ($4.6bn) of his firm's capital to a private equity fund managed by Permira. It is the largest commitment by an investor to a single fund and Permira IV is set to break the European record if it succeeds in raising just short of €10bn.

It is a measure of how far Europe's private equity industry has come. In 1996, the total value of UK private equity deals was £5.9bn and beyond the UK there was hardly a European private equity industry worth the name.