Warburg Pincus has put £25m (€39m) of equity financing into Loyalty Management UK, which will run a new customer loyalty programme covering Sainsbury's, Barclaycard, BP and Debenhams.

The investment from Warburg Pincus reflects a widely held view that support services is one of the most promising sectors for private equity investment. In this instance Joseph Schull, a managing director at Warburg Pincus, said his firm saw an opportunity to take advantage of a market that is ripe for consolidation.