Shake-ups in the senior ranks within private equity funds is creating some much-needed churn in the sector, which is likely to lead to promotions and vacancies lower down the ranks.

It’s not been a great two years for those in more junior positions within private equity firms. While redundancies haven’t been too widespread, the lack of activity has meant promotions for principals and recruitment of juniors has been largely stagnant.

However, private equity firms have been making moves to get some new blood in recently. The likes of Apax Partners, BNP Paribas, Permira, Cinven, PAI, 3i and BC Partners have all made moves to shake-up the dealmaking teams.

In the case of Apax, the desire to replace experienced partners with some younger faces before raising cash for a new multi-million euro fund was cited as one of the motivations for the departures.

“There’s been a huge degree of frustration among people with around five years’ experience,” says Gail McManus, director of Private Equity Recruitment. “Movement at the top is likely to remove these glass ceilings, allow more partner promotions and create an updraft across the entire organisation.”

Junior recruitment has largely been non-existent for the best part of two years, she adds, but there were signs of life emerging in April and May of this year.

There reasons for optimism in the industry. Private equity sponsored UK buyouts in the first half of this year have reached 7.9bn, compared to 4.7bn for the whole of 2009, according to figures from Barclays Private Equity. However, groups are also finding it more difficult to raise money.

McManus warns against anticipating a recruitment frenzy, saying that the number of departures is unlikely be matched entirely by promotions or hiring.

“Also I suspect we’re unlikely to see a great deal of recruitment at the senior ranks, with many partners either retiring, leaving the industry or looking for non-executive director positions,” she adds.