One of the largest private equity houses in Europe, Sweden’s EQT, has made another step in its diversification away from its core buyout strategy, with the setting up of a €350m credit fund.

The fund has taken more than a year and a half to raise, after Private Equity News first revealed EQT was raising the fund in March 2009. According to a person familiar with the situation, raising the money was "a good result, in a difficult fundraising environment".