Charterhouse has offloaded French industrial group Fives to Axa Private Equity in its second exit of the month, putting it in a strong position for its next fundraising. 

Fives, which designs and supplies production lines and ready-to-work factories, turned over €1.3bn in 2011 and was given a boost as it generates revenues from various markets. 

Under the deal, management have increased their stake to a majority holding. 

Charterhouse invested in Fives in 2006, when it was called Fives-Lille, taking the business off Barclays Private Equity. The then banking captive firm stayed on as a minority shareholder after the deal.

The trade of Fives comes just over three weeks after Charterhouse sold a majority of its holding in Wood Mackenzie to Hellman & Friedman, which valued the oil and gas analyst at £1.1bn (€1.4bn). Charterhouse paid £553m for Wood Mackenzie in 2009.

The secretive private equity firm is thought to be nearing the halfway mark on its current €4bn fund, raised in 2009, and has begun approaching investors to warm them up for its tenth fund next year.