The firm said it had raised 5.2 billion euros in new money over the year with 2.7 billion euros heading in to its European Mezzanine and Senior Debt Partners strategies, it said in a statement.

ICG said its focus would turn to raising money for a number of newer funds in the coming months, so it did not expect total fundraising to be maintained at the same pace in the new financial year.

Despite the strong inflows, the firm said full-year pretax profit fell year-on-year to 158.8 million pounds($230.02 million)from 178.5 million pounds, hit by a fall in the value of derivatives used to hedge.

Profits for its fund management operations, meanwhile, were up 18 percent to 61.2 million pounds from 52 million pounds, helping underpin a 4.6 percent increase in the final dividend to 15.8 pence a share.

The firm also announced a special dividend of 200 million pounds.

"This will re-gear the balance sheet to within our target range and contribute to the increase in our return on equity to over 13 percent. It will also take to 600 million pounds the amount returned to shareholders, in addition to the ordinary dividend, in the last three years," Chief Executive Christophe Evain said.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)