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14 Nov 2024

Results for the six months to 30 September 2024

  • Financial
HY And FY Results Image

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3i Group delivered good financial performance in the first half of FY2025

  • Total return of £2,046 million or 10% on opening shareholders’ funds (September 2023: £1,669 million, 10%). NAV per share of 2,261 pence (31 March 2024: 2,085 pence), including a 48 pence per share loss on foreign exchange translation (September 2023: 11 pence per share loss), and after the payment of the 34.50 pence per share second FY2024 dividend in July 2024.
  • Our Private Equity business delivered a gross investment return of £2,071 million or 11% (September 2023: £1,826 million, 11%). Action continues to deliver impressive results, and the majority of our other portfolio companies are trading resiliently against mixed macroeconomic performance across Europe and the US and wider geopolitical uncertainty. 94% of our Private Equity portfolio companies by value grew earnings in the 12 months to 30 June 2024.
  • Action generated net sales of €9,567 million (nine reporting periods ended P9 2023: €7,912 million), operating EBITDA of €1,344 million (nine reporting periods ended P9 2023: €1,065 million) and like-for-like (“LFL”) sales growth of 9.8% in the nine reporting periods ending on 29 September 2024 (“P9”). This strong performance supported value growth of £2,170 million for Action in the period. Following another successful refinancing and pro-rata share redemption, 3i received proceeds of £1,164 million from Action in the period and we reinvested a total of £768 million, increasing our gross equity stake from 54.8% to 57.9%.
  • In the ten reporting periods ending 27 October 2024, Action's net sales and operating EBITDA were 21% and 26% ahead of the same period last year and LFL sales growth over the same period was 10.1%. At that date, Action's cash balance was €830 million.
  • Our Private Equity team completed the realisation of nexeye and signed the realisation of WP in the period. Total proceeds generated of £662 million, achieving sterling money multiples of 2x or greater. The team also completed a new investment in Constellation (£98 million) and a further five bolt-on acquisitions, the majority of which were funded from the portfolio companies' own balance sheets.
  • Our Infrastructure business generated a gross investment return of £43 million, or 3% (September 2023: £31 million, 2%). This was driven primarily by a 4% increase in 3i Infrastructure plc’s ("3iN") share price in the six-month period to 30 September 2024. 3iN's underlying portfolio continues to perform well, and exits have been achieved at premiums to the opening 31 March 2024 values, as evidenced by the offer received for Valorem and by the partial syndication of Future Biogas. We also completed two bolt-on acquisitions for two investments in our North American Infrastructure Fund.
  • We ended the period with liquidity of £1,286 million, net debt of £805 million and gearing of 4%. The first dividend of 30.5 pence per share for FY2025, set at 50% of the total dividend for FY2024, will be paid in January 2025.

Simon Borrows, 3i’s Chief Executive, commented:

“Against an uncertain geopolitical environment and weak growth across much of Europe, we move into the second half of FY2025 with a portfolio that is well positioned to build on a solid first half.

Action is the major contributor to our returns and continues to produce sector-leading growth. With a strong business and financial model and significant white space to expand into, we believe it will continue to do so for many years to come. In addition, the leading companies in our portfolio are performing strongly and a number of the portfolio companies that were adversely impacted by challenges in 2023 are beginning to turn the corner and see improved trading.

We have seen good momentum across our investment and realisation activity in the half and we have a good pipeline of high-quality realisations for the next 12 months. We also have some interesting potential opportunities in our investment pipeline, which we will continue to review in a disciplined way and progress those that are most attractive.”

Summary financial highlights under the Investment basis

3i prepares its statutory financial statements in accordance with UK adopted international accounting standards. However, we also report a non-GAAP “Investment basis”, which we believe aids users of our report to assess the Group’s underlying operating performance. The Investment basis (which is unaudited) is an alternative performance measure (“APM”) and is described on page 19. Total return and net assets are the same under the Investment basis and IFRS and we provide a reconciliation of our Investment basis financial statements to the IFRS statements from page 21. Pages 1 to 18 are prepared on an Investment basis.

 

Investment basis

Six months to/as
at 30 September
2024

Six months to/as
at 30 September
2023

12 months to/as
at 31 March
2024

Total return1

 £2,046m  £1,669m £3,839m

Percentage return on opening shareholders’ funds

 10% 10% 23%

Dividend per ordinary share

 30.5p 26.5p 61.0p

 

Gross investment return2

 £2,137m £1,867m £4,168m

As a percentage of opening 3i portfolio value

 10% 10% 23%

 

Cash investment2

 £893m

£84m

 £593m

Realisation proceeds

 £1,553m

£19m

 £888m

3i portfolio value

 £22,953m

£20,255m

 £21,636m

Gross debt

 £1,191m

£1,208m

 £1,202m

Net debt2

 £805m

£1,153m

 £806m

Gearing2

 4%

6%

 4%

Liquidity

 £1,286m

£955m

 £1,296m

Diluted net asset value per ordinary share (“NAV per share”)

 2,261p

1,886p

 2,085p

  1. Total return is defined as Total comprehensive income for the year, under both the Investment basis and the IFRS basis.

  2. Financial measure defined as APM. Further information on page 19.

 

Disclaimer

These half-year results have been prepared solely to provide information to shareholders. They should not be relied on by any other party or for any other purpose. These half-year results may contain statements about the future, including certain statements about the future outlook for 3i Group plc and its subsidiaries (“3i” or “the Group”). These are not guarantees of future performance and will not be updated. Although we believe our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any statements about the future outlook may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different.

 

Enquiries:

Silvia Santoro, Group Investor Relations Director

020 7975 3258

Kathryn van der Kroft, Communications Director

020 7975 3021

A PDF copy of this release can be downloaded from www.3i.com/investor-relations

For further information, including a live webcast of the results presentation at 10.00am on 14 November 2024, please visit www.3i.com/investor-relations