On the surface, it has been business as usual in the booming private equity industry. Clayton Dubilier & Rice have agreed to take over ServiceMaster, a US lawncare specialist, for $4.5bn. Others including Blackstone and Carlyle have plotted a $45bn-plus counter-bid for TXU, a Texas utility coveted by a rival consortium - threatening again to break the record for the largest buy-out in history.
In Europe, meanwhile, private equity executives have been trying to defuse the political and social controversies caused by their quest to own ever larger chunks of global business.
