3i Group plc (III) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning. Welcome to 3i's interim results presentation. This has been another good half for 3i. We delivered a total return of 10%, giving us a net asset value per share at the end of September of £22.61p. And that's after a 48% per share loss on foreign exchange translation and the payment of the 34.5p pence per share second FY 2024 dividend in July. We ended the half with a gross investment return of 11% from private equity and 3% from infrastructure, as well as 68 million pounds of cash income. Our Maramico chart showing the makeup of the 3i portfolio on a page has continued to develop. Our four resilient sectors of value for money, private label, infrastructure and healthcare now represent 87% of total portfolio value. Private equity delivered a good return. 94% of the portfolio by value grew earnings in the 12 months to the end of June, 2024. Action continued to deliver a strong performance. And we got good growth from private label and better trading from some of our online and discretionary consumer companies. Investment and realization activity has picked up this year. We bought more shares in action, and we have a good level of new investment and bolt-on projects in progress. We're beginning to see more disciplined pricing for potential targets, and we're currently in exclusivity on two new assets. That's after closing the purchase of Constellation in the first half. We've also completed two significant disposals, NEXI in July and WP in October. and we're now preparing for a number of other sale processes. Overall, the portfolios in PE and infrastructure are performing well. That's despite the weak growth and political uncertainties across a number of our markets. We continue to see some specific sector difficulties, including the automotive sector and t...