Pinsent Masons is taking aim at the US private equity market with a new initiative to win work from US sponsors.

Partners from the firm are set to make a series of trips to the States in the new year to court business from US private equity houses.

The firm's private equity head Gregg Davison said: "We have a specific US private equity initiative to target US sponsors investing in the UK and Europe.

"It involves partners going over to the States and visiting private equity houses in the US and talking about business in the UK, the Far East and Europe where Pinsents are strong."

The project is a response to US private equity houses increasingly targeting the UK and Europe. Davison said: "There has been a growing trend of UK mid-market private equity houses selling to US private equity houses who have entered the UK market aggressively, particularly in the technology and retail sectors."

US-based private equity houses have pulled off a string of major deals in the UK in recent years including Chicago-based GTCR's acquisition of UK-based consumer credit company Callcredit from Vitruvian Partners and New York-based New Mountain Capital's acquisition of recruitment firm Alexander Mann Solutions for £260m, both in 2014.

Tom Leman, Pinsent's head of retail and consumer, said: "It is not only the large US houses like CD&R, KKR and Texas Pacific that are interested in the European market. There are US private equity houses who don't have offices here but are coming and doing transactions in the UK and Europe."

Leman argued that the focus on US private equity sponsors links in well with the firm's sector-based approach.

He said that there was an acknowledgement among UK and European clients "that growing in the States is harder, particularly in retail and consumer, than people appreciate".

He added: "It helps to have a seasoned investor in the States that has done it before."

The firm has an existing US corporate initiative, where partners regularly visit the US to build contacts with US businesses looking to venture overseas.

According to Davison, the US private equity initiative is "an extension of that and a response to the changing market".