A booming leisure sector helped fuel a record year for cash realisations in the UK private equity market, with more than £40bn (€58.4m) of liquidity released in 2005.

The figures, produced by the Centre for Management Buy-out Research, part of Nottingham University and backed by Barclays Private Equity and Deloitte, showed that £21.7bn was realised through sales, up 19% from 2004. The leap in refinancing levels continued last year when a record £18.8bn was raised through restructurings and partial exits, more than five times the level of 2003.