The British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has put numbers to its claim that the industry is good for the UK economy, with a report showing that in the past five years private equity-backed companies grew sales by 27% on average.

This is more than double the sales growth achieved by FTSE100 companies. However, that may have as much to do with the type of companies backed by private equity as with the involvement of private equity per se. FTSE100 companies tend not to sustain double-digit growth.