Private equity firms have little confidence in the ability of non-executive directors to supervise companies they have invested in, according to a survey by KPMG, forcing firms to spend more of their own time on company management.

KPMG's survey of UK private equity firms showed that 75% of respondents thought at least one in three of the non-executive directors they had brought into their portfolio companies had failed to live up to expectations. As many as 30% of the firms said half their non-executive appointees had proved ineffective.