Carlyle fighting funds drought

Private-equity firm The Carlyle Group has received a $14 billion (£9 billion) boost from United States investors as it shuts operations elsewhere in the world following the credit crunch.

Carlyle has raised $14 billion of the $15 billion it is targeting for a US buyout fund, which it started to promote in spring 2007.

The global financial crisis and credit crunch has made it extremely hard for investors to deploy cash. Yesterday, Carlyle closed its central and eastern European operations and its leveraged finance team in Asia.

Private-equity fundraising is at its slowest for more than three years, figures from London-based research firm Private Equity Intelligence showed in October.

A total of 117 funds raised $82.3 billion from investors in the third quarter of 2008, the lowest dollar amount since the first quarter of 2005.