Carlyle, the international buy-out firm which recently raised a $1.1bn (€912m) in a second power and energy fund, has taken its first significant step into the European oil industy with a bid for Petroplus, a Euronext-listed Dutch company which it plans to take private.

Carlyle's latest fund was raised in a joint venture with Riverstone Holdings, a New York private equity firm, and is five times larger than its February 2001 predecessor.