Now is not the best time, as a private equity company, to be buying assets in continental Europe. Prices, says Simon Borrows, the chief executive of 3i, are on earnings multiples that might be a percentage point higher than available elsewhere, and that is despite the concerns over macro-economic trends.
Fortunately 3i, which has been turned around by Mr Borrows over the past couple of years, is a net seller of businesses. He has cut costs to the point where they are running well below income from management fees. He also intends to cut the number of companies that 3i is invested in, which had grown to an unmanageable size, to a more comfortable 40 or so.
That number has already been reduced from