Some investments are better than others. 3i Group bought into Action, a Netherlands-based discount retailer that few will have heard of, in 2011, paying £131 million. The stake was revalued at 3i’s March financial year end at £902 million. Yesterday the quoted private equity fund said that the stake was worth £1.46 billion.
So, three months ago, Action was about a fifth of 3i’s portfolio of investments, which is pretty high for any private equity group. As of yesterday it was approaching a third. The rise is partly because of sterling’s depreciation against the euro since the EU referendum, which makes it difficult to assign a precise percentage to the stake because other valuations will have moved around too.
The real reason why 3i took