As 3i points out, the quoted private equity business has had a busy first quarter since the end of March. It has, since the beginning of the year, also seen a startling rise in its share price, which has limited the value of its dividend yield, one of the main attractions of the shares, to anyone buying now.
The shares rose another 1p to 935p on those first-quarter figures, which showed net assets per share growing from 604p to 628p and a total return to investors of 4.1 per cent. That may look hard to sustain, but the return in the 2016-17 financial year was a whopping 36 per cent.
The fund has whittled down the number of its investments from 134 in 2012, including