The fallout from the troubles at Chrysler and GMAC could extend beyond Cerberus Capital Management as it has emerged that the buy-out firm has sold “significantly” more than half its equity to about 90 investors.

Although Cerberus invested $7.4bn in both transactions when it took the companies private in two of the biggest deals of the leveraged buy-out boom, it has since sold on the majority of its equity, people familiar with the situation said.