Soros Private Equity Partners, the buy-out firm associated with financier George Soros, has hired Nick Baldwin, the former chief executive of Powergen, the UK-listed energy company, to raise its game in Europe's busy utility sector.

Utility companies are set to become one of the largest sources of dealflow for private equity firms this year. The largest potential deal in Europe's pipeline of potential buy-out targets is the sale of the UK's national gas regional distribution networks, which have a price tag of almost €6bn ($7.5bn).