PAI has made an informal offer to halve investor commitments to its new €5.4bn buy-out fund, which was frozen after its top two chiefs announced surprise plans to leave continental Europe’s biggest private equity group.

The non-binding offer, seen by the Financial Times, was made in a letter to PAI investors. It is designed to satisfy a growing desire among investors to cut back the world’s biggest buy-out funds in response to the shrinking private equity market.