Post-Lehman, European private equity has all but ignored the grimier end of life: the widget-makers, chemicals plants and facilities scrubbers that used to be mainstays of the buyout business.

But that may be about to change.

Debt for new deals has become less scarce and a bit cheaper. Industrial demand has staged a big recovery. And some funds are itching to take profits by offloading long-held portfolio firms, either to each other or public markets.

Since the crisis erupted, many deals have focused on bankable niches that proved almost recession-proof, such as shops selling knick-knacks for pets, or on big secular trends such as a switch to green technology or the rise of Brazil.

Data provider Preqin says industrial deals made up just 14% of buyouts by value this year. That was less than half their share of the market in 2008, and behind deals in both healthcare and the combined retail and consumer sectors.

For exits (sales of existing investments), the numbers are even worse. The share by value plunged to 9%, from 45% in 2008, although sales of basic materials companies are faring better.

Bankers and private equity executives say the recent €3.1 billion sale of German Cognis is a hopeful sign of change. Bigger chemicals maker BASF bought it after almost a decade in private equity ownership.

And CVC is contemplating an even-bigger three-way buyout of Spanish infrastructure firm Abertis.

Meanwhile, both economic data and stock market performance paint an encouraging picture, despite Europe's sovereign debt debacle.

Euro zone industrial new orders are rising at their fastest pace in a decade. And the industrial goods and services secto , up 11.3%, is the best performing bit of the Stoxx Europe 600 this year. Chemicals have been less impressive.

Names to watch include Spanish can-maker Mivisa, which Dow Jones says CVC is seeking to sell. In Germany, TowerBrook is planning to sell latex maker PolymerLatex, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Bankers say other potential candidates for a sale or listing include organic chemicals firm Perstorp, owned by PAI Partners, and Carlyle's AZ Electronic Materials.

A bit further out, Danish cleaning firm ISS, owned by Goldman Sachs's private equity arm and EQT, and Cinven's Italian jet engine maker Avio could be big draws, bankers say.

And as a source of new investments, companies shedding big units that are no longer core to their strategy include Anglo American, seeking to shift its building materials group Tarmac, and Compagnie de Saint Gobain, which has long flagged its glass bottle arm as up for sale.

Philip Wylie, a director at Houlihan Lokey, points to a "very dramatic" increase in industrially-focused activity.

"From a private equity perspective it's about riding the recovery and investing in technically well-positioned businesses," he said.