Permira awaits attractive buying opportunities

* Permira sees investment windows in 6-24 months

* Warns market could get worse before it recovers

* Sees subdued investment activity in 2009

* Sees more difficult decisions to protect Permira cos

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - European private equity firm Permira [PERM.UL] said it expects to see attractive investment opportunities emerge in the final quarter of 2009, but warned market conditions could get worse before they get better.

"I have not experienced such a lack of clarity about the outlook in my career and there may be worse to come before we see a recovery," chairman Damon Buffini wrote in the firm's 2008 annual review, published on Tuesday.

Permira earlier this year wrote down the value of its portfolio by 36 percent for 2008 as the downturn forced it to cut the value of its investments, including German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media (PSMG_p.DE) and fashion group Valentino.

The firm said investment activity is likely to be subdued throughout 2009 although it expects new opportunities to emerge over the coming six to 24 months.

But deals will be smaller and the financing environment very different, Buffini said.

"It will... be a very long time before we see the prefix 'mega' applied again to the industry's activity," he said.

Buffini said the accelerating economic decline in 2008 tested the resilience of some investors' funding, prompting the firm to allow them to cap their commitments.

The move, which was taken up by a 10 percent of Permira's investor base including largest investor SVG Capital Plc (SVI.L), reduced the size of the firm's fourth fund to 9.6 billion euros ($12.5 billion) from 11.1 billion.

SVG last week said it was unlikely to make any new fund commitments in the coming 12 to 24 months, prompting concerns it might not be able to invest in a new Permira buyout fund should the firm come back to the fundraising market in that time.

"We have taken some difficult decisions over the last year and there will be more to come in the months ahead as we seek to secure the long-term future of the Permira fund's companies," said Buffini.

"The same is true of any business right now, public or private. ($1=.7683 Euro)

(reporting by Simon Meads; editing by John Stonestreet)