Difficult market conditions have caused a 45% decrease in the value of exits from investment for European private equity and venture capital firms in 2001.

The value of exits fell from £15bn (€24.7bn) to £8.3bn in the first half of the year compared with the first half of 2001, according to figures compiled by Zephus Corporate Finance Knowledge. The total number of publicly disclosed transactions has fallen from 307 to 189.