Charterhouse Capital's Gordon Bonnyman and his 15 fellow directors enjoyed an average pay packet of at least £1m (€1.4m) last year. The packages underline the high profits made by private equity managers during the stock market slump.

The Bonnyman team bought the UK business with the backing of Royal Bank of Scotland two years ago, paying HSBC just £8.8m. The bank acquired the private equity business when it bought Crédit Commercial de France, which had earlier purchased Charterhouse's investment banking operation.