3i Group
As a private equity investor with plenty of exposure to the travel and automotive sectors, retailers and gyms, 3i really should have been brought lower by the coronavirus pandemic (Miles Costello writes).
Yet the blue-chip investment group’s results for the first half, published yesterday, defied even its own performance expectations, which it had marked lower in May when it published its annual results.
It is not immune to Covid-19, of course, and parts of the portfolio are suffering, but so far this has been more than balanced by strength elsewhere.
3i traces its history back to 1945 and a £15 million fund called the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation, set up by the government to help companies rebuild after the end of the