3i Group PLC on Tuesday highlighted a ‘good’ performance in the financial year just finished with ‘impressive’ growth from Action leading the way.
The statement from the London-based private equity and venture capital company came ahead of a capital markets seminar involving presentations on the firm’s services and software sector approach and on Audley Travel on Tuesday.
The company said it was seeing good overall performance across both the Private Equity and Infrastructure portfolios against a weak macroeconomic backdrop across the UK and continental Europe.
Action’s impressive performance has continued with very strong sales and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation growth.
Year-to-date sales, at September 22, of €9.3 billion are 21% ahead of the same period last year, 3i remarked. Like-for-like sales growth over the same period was 9.6%, driven by customer transactions and strong sales of everyday necessities.
3i expects operating Ebitda for the 12 months to the end of September to be around €1.88 billion, up 23% from €1.53 billion a year prior.
Cash generation has continued to be strong, with cash balances at September 22 at €779 million.
Action has now added 179 net new stores in the year to date and remains on track to deliver or exceed 330 net new stores in 2024, 3i said.
Action was established in 1993 in the Netherlands and according to 3i, is the fastest growing non-food discounter in Europe.
In the broader private equity portfolio, Royal Sanders and European Bakery Group continue to perform well.
Customer demand is also driving a recovery across the healthcare assets, 3i noted, while Audley Travel has continued to see very strong growth and the software and IT related assets in the portfolio are showing positive momentum.
The firm said it was seeing an improving trend across some of the discretionary consumer assets and a number of assets which experienced challenging operating conditions last year have been returning to improving trading trajectories.
Shares in 3i were up 0.1% at 3,345.00 pence in London on Tuesday morning.
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