Hans Vanoorbeek has become the first person to leave BC Partners' London office for years, to take advantage of buy-out opportunities in Benelux.

Vanoorbeek is setting up his own buy-out firm to focus on the region. He says: "Private equity has hardly tapped the opportunity in Benelux. It has one of Europe's largest economies, larger than Spain, but CVC is the only large firm that is really active there." Candover's recent acquisition of Ontex, a E1bn ($1.2bn) Belgian sanitary products company, is a rare exception.