Nearly three-quarters of all UK buy-out exits ended in administration in the three months to June, underlining the scale of challenges facing the industry as the value of new buy-out deals shrank to a 14-year low.

Out of 108 buy-out exits this year, nine were secondary buy-outs, 25 were trade sales and 74 ended in receivership, according to research published on Wednesday by the Centre for Management Buy-Out Research (CMBOR) at Nottingham University.