The participation of private equity funding in European M&A activity is growing at record rates, according to a report from Cinven, one of the leading private equity firms for large European buy-outs.

European M&A activity has risen dramatically over the past five years, with the number of transactions per year increasing by 78% from 1996 to 631 deals completed last year. But it is the heightened role of private equity firms in engineering these transactions that is even more remarkable - the participation of private equity funds in M&A activity has risen by 219% in the number of transactions since 1996.