Restructuring specialists predict that the number of private-equity owned companies in Europe needing to renegotiate their debt will double over the next year.

Alix Partners, the turnround advisers, found that two-thirds of the restructuring experts they surveyed in Europe and the US expect up to twice the volume of restructurings in 2010 compared with 2009. A further 16 per cent of the experts surveyed believe there will be more than twice as many restructurings.