Electra Partners Europe has used €65m ($70m) of debt from Bank of Scotland to refinance its acquisition of Oase Wübker, a German garden ponds company it acquired with only equity in order to beat the vendors' tax-driven deadline of December 31.

Nigel McConnell, the chief executive of Electra, said his firm always planned to put debt into the acquisition, which valued Oase Wübker at between €120m and €150m. But the family-owners of Oase Wübker, who would have faced a higher tax bill if the deal had been delayed until 2003, set the end of 2002 as the deadline for Electra's exclusivity.