Last year was a period of transformation for 3i (III) as the private equity investment group matched or beat all the priorities and targets set out last June. Cost reductions came in 28 per cent ahead of target at £51m, and for the current year the target has been raised to £60m. Assets under management rose 23 per cent to £12.9bn, while net debt was reduced from £464m to £335m.
The group's trading performance was equally impressive. The previous year's £498m loss on unrealised investments turned into a £250m gain, while realised profits on disposals rose from £23m to £195m. This meant that the previous 19.5 per cent negative return on shareholders' funds became a positive return of 14.2 per cent. Much of the improvement came from the private equity side, where the gross portfolio return was turned from a £341m loss into a gain of £518m.
Debt management also grew strongly, with third-party assets under management nearly doubling to £6.4bn. The total was boosted by the acquisition of Invesco's European collateralised loan obligation contracts book - that added £1.1bn - and a further £2bn came from establishing a 3i debt management platform in the US.
Analysts at Barclays expect net asset value (NAV) to rise to 340p by March 2014.
| 3i Group (III) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 342p | MARKET VALUE: | £3.32bn | |
| TOUCH: | 341-342p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 364p | LOW: 168p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.4% | PE RATIO: | 18 | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | 10% | NET DEBT: | 11% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Net asset value (p)* | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 279 | -1944 | -319.0 | 3.80 |
| 2010 | 321 | 159 | 17.2 | 3.00 |
| 2011 | 351 | 189 | 19.6 | 3.60 |
| 2012 | 279 | -777 | -82.8 | 8.10 |
| 2013 | 311 | 189 | 19.5 | 8.10 |
| % change | +11 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 19 Jun Payment: 26 Jul *Diluted net asset value | ||||
