Chris Warren, a former investment analyst at BC Partners, has turned his back on big buy-outs by joining ECI, the UK mid-market buy-out firm.

The two firms are quite different. BC Partners, a pan-European firm, is sometimes thought of Europe's answer to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US buy-out firm that acquired RJR Nabisco for $25bn (€21bn) in 1989 in the world's largest buy-out. ECI is rooted in the UK and a typical deal would be its recent acquisition of The Learning Library, a distance learning company, for £23m (€33m).