Matilda Battersby

Carlyle wants to inject £25m into IMO Carwash, while TPG reportedly has offered to write a €60m equity cheque for UK chemicals company Vita. The actions are meant to trigger debt write-downs from portfolio company creditors.

Paris-headquartered AXA Private Equity has formed a partnership with Italian industrial firm Tozzi Group to invest in Italian wind farms, hydroelectric and solar projects. AXA infrastructure head Mathias Burghardt says renewable energy has a 'bright future'

Last year the firm raised $10bn for two tandem real estate and distressed investment funds. This year it aims to double the dry powder with two similarly inclined vehicles.

A mortgage company has teamed with a title company to launch First Equity Capital, a fund ‘to stem the tide of foreclosures and delinquencies’ in the US housing market. In December, more than 300,000 home owners filed foreclosure in the US.

3i veteran Cressida Hogg has replaced Michael Queen, who took over as 3i's CEO from Philip Yea earlier this week. 3i's infrastructure arm also said it sold a 31% stake in its Infrastructure Investor fund to Barclays for £164m.

3i veteran Michael Queen will now steer the firm, whose top 50 investments lost £682m in the past nine months. Last year, 3i invested a total of £841m, down dramatically from the £1.8bn the prior year. 3i's share price has plummeted in recent months, this morning losing nearly 4%, giving it a £941m market capitalisation.

The UK-based association representing more than 20 investor institutions, including the Wellcome Trust, Hermes and the USS, is seeking to raise its profile and better represent LPs during the downturn.

Ian Jackson has been hired as a director for The Carlyle Group's distressed and corporate opportunities arm. He will be 'deployed' to help invest the firm's latest distress fund, Carlyle Strategic Partners II, which closed on $1.35bn in April 2008.

The New York-based private equity firm is reportedly on the brink of making up to 27 of its 275 employees redundant.

Three high profile socialists and MEPs have written to the EU Commission president to demand action proposals for private equity regulations, following a war of words triggered by remarks from EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy in December.