Two management buy-outs in one day from 3i, one of Europe's biggest private equity firms, may herald the long-awaited thawing of vendor expectations.
One private equity adviser said: "This may signal something of a turning point as vendors finally start to ask for realistic sums for businesses that they may have had on the block for some time. The downturn is here, the fundamentals have changed and companies realise they are not going to get as much for a business as they would have 18 months ago."
