3i Group Regulatory News (III)

17 May 2018

3i Group plc announces results for the yearto 31 March 2018

Strong all-round performance

· Total return of £1,425 million or 24% on opening shareholders' funds and NAV per share of 724 pence (31 March 2017: 604 pence)

· Continued strong performance from Private Equity, with gross investment return of £1,438 million or 30%, driven by Action, Scandlines, ATESTEO and Basic-Fit in particular. The gross investment return from investments completed between 2013 and 2016 was 29%

· Private Equity team generated excellent realisations of £1,002 million, announced a further c.£350 million of proceeds to complete by the summer of 2018 and invested a total of £587 million in four new portfolio companies, as well as two important further investments

· A very good year for Infrastructure, which advised 3i Infrastructure plc ("3iN") on six investments and commitments totalling £525 million and the disposals of Elenia and AWG, which helped to generate a total return of 29% for 3iN as well as a special dividend of £143 million for 3i

· Closed two European Infrastructure fund platforms, raising assets of more than £1 billion, and invested £177 million in our first US infrastructure investment, Smarte Carte

· Total dividend of 30 pence per share for FY2018, with 22 pence to be paid in July subject to shareholder approval

Simon Borrows, 3i's Chief Executive, commented:

"3i delivered another strong all-round performance in FY2018, generating a total return of 24%. Our investment teams had a very busy year. We received £1,323 million of proceeds, announced a further c.£350 million of realisations to complete by July 2018, and invested £827 million, including in five new companies.

We enter FY2019 with good momentum across the Group. Our fund management initiatives in Infrastructure, together with our reinvestment into Scandlines, will generate important cash income while our Private Equity portfolio remains well positioned to generate top-tier capital returns. We remain confident in our ability to deliver continued growth and our new dividend policy provides shareholders with clarity on future distributions."

Financial highlights 

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

For further information regarding the announcement of 3i's annual results to 31 March 2018, including a live videocast of the results presentation at 09.30am, please visit www.3i.com.

Notes to editors

3i is a leading international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity and Infrastructure. Our core investment markets are northern Europe and North America. For further information, please visit: www.3i.com.

Notes to the announcement of the results

Note 1

All of the financial data in this announcement is taken from the Investment basis financial statements. The statutory accounts are prepared under IFRS for the year to 31 March 2018 and have not yet been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The statutory accounts for the year to 31 March 2017 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditor's reports on the statutory accounts for these years are unqualified and do not contain any matters to which the auditor drew attention by way of emphasis or any statements under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006. This announcement does not constitute statutory accounts.

Note 2

Copies of the Annual report and accounts 2018 will be distributed to shareholders on or soon after 29 May 2018.

Note 3

This announcement may contain statements about the future including certain statements about the future outlook for 3i Group plc and its subsidiaries ("3i"). These are not guarantees of future performance and will not be updated. Although we believe our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any statements about the future outlook may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different.

Note 4

Subject to shareholder approval, the proposed dividend is expected to be paid on 20 July 2018 to holders of ordinary shares on the register on 15 June 2018.

Chairman's statement

FY2018 was another successful year for 3i. Our two divisions generated strong returns and we maintained our excellent track record of realisations, generating proceeds of £1,323 million (2017: £1,275 million). Importantly, we completed or announced over £700 million of investment in Private Equity. In addition, we completed our first Infrastructure investment in North America and launched two Infrastructure funds in Europe to complement our mandate for 3iN.

Market environment

FY2018 was a year dominated by global politics and increasing tensions across the world stage. This, coupled with the expectation of interest rate rises in the US, led to an increase in volatility across capital markets, even though the broad macro-economic picture remained strong. Financing markets remained relatively robust throughout the year, more closely reflecting the healthy macro-economic outlook.

The Group used this strong back-drop to sell a number of significant investments across both divisions, which delivered outstanding investment returns for shareholders. At the same time, the Group's investment teams in key geographies originated attractive new investments while remaining focused on price discipline.

Performance and dividend

The Group's total return for the year was £1,425 million (2017: £1,592 million). Net asset value increased to724 pence per share (31 March 2017: 604 pence) and our return on opening shareholders' funds was 24% (2017: 36%). We remained net divestors in FY2018, ending the year with net cash of £479 million and liquidity of £1,404 million (31 March 2017: net cash of £419 million and liquidity of £1,323 million). Immediately after the year end, on 3 April 2018, we completed the £135 million investment in Royal Sanders announced in February 2018.

In recognition of the Group's financial performance in FY2018 and the strength of its balance sheet, the Board has recommended a dividend of 22.0 pence (2017: 18.5 pence). This is made up of the balance of the base dividend(8 pence per share, after the 8 pence paid in January 2018) and an additional dividend of 14.0 pence. Subject to shareholder approval, the dividend will be paid to shareholders in July 2018 and makes a total dividend for the year of 30.0 pence (2017: 26.5 pence).

Our policy of paying a base and additional dividend was introduced in May 2012. It has worked well as we reshaped the Group's strategy and simplified our business model. Six years of successful strategic delivery since then have supported an increase in the total dividend from 8.1 pence in FY2013 to 30.0 pence in FY2018.

In light of the Group's continued progress in executing its strategy, we now propose to replace our base and additional dividend policy with a simpler policy. The Board will maintain its conservative balance sheet strategy, which excludes structural gearing at the Group level, and will carefully consider the outlook for investments and realisations and market conditions. Subject to that, the Board will aim to maintain or grow the dividend each year, from the 30.0 pence this year. We will continue to pay an interim dividend, which we expect to set at 50% of the prior year's total dividend, subject to the same considerations.

Board and management

After last year's changes, this year the composition of the Board was stable. I would like to thank the Board, the management team and all of our employees for their contribution to this year's excellent results.

Outlook

We enter FY2019 with a high-performing portfolio of investments in both of our divisions and a strong balance sheet. Competition in both private equity and infrastructure remains intense, with high asset prices demanding a disciplined approach to investment. But I remain confident that the Group will be agile and opportunistic as we navigate what looks likely to be another year of significant economic and geo-political uncertainty.

Simon Thompson

Chairman

Chief Executive's statement

3i delivered another strong all-round performance in FY2018, with NAV per share increasing by 20% to 724 pence (31 March 2017: 604 pence). Unlike FY2017, which included a £297 million gain on currency translation, our total return of £1,425 million (2017: £1,592 million) was after a £16 million loss on currency. This return was 24% of opening shareholders' funds, marking the fourth consecutive year of greater than 20% returns. This was a profitable year for realisations; we received £1.3 billion of cash and announced a further c.£350 million of proceeds which will complete by summer 2018. It was also a good year for new investment, with £827 million invested, including in five new companies. So FY2018 was a very active year and further confirmation of the Group's strategy and return potential.

A strong portfolio in Private Equity

In Private Equity, we have a quality investment portfolio, which is performing strongly overall. Earnings increased in 91% of the portfolio by value in the year (2017: 93%) and generated attractive returns for shareholders.

Longer-term hold assets

Our largest Private Equity investment, Action, had another strong year. Action's expansion continued at an impressive rate, with 243 net new stores opened in calendar year 2017. Revenue grew by 28% to €3.4 billion, like-for-like sales by 5.3% and EBITDA by 25% to €387 million (2017: €2.7 billion, 6.9% and €310 million). Action now has over 1,100 stores and intends to open more stores in 2018 than 2017. New Action stores become profitable in one year on average and the rapid expansion programme led to another year of strong value growth.

Action's straightforward business model, built on a consistent, one-store format and good quality but inexpensive products, has been proven to work in seven countries so far. However, growth at this pace requires very significant investment in logistics, supply chain, IT, risk management and HR. To manage the enormous volume of goods, Action opened a further two distribution centres ("DCs") in 2018 and commenced building two more.

The newer DCs will help support Action's expansion and reduce costs in the future, as those stores that are a long distance from a DC incur materially higher transport costs. Growth on this scale is very challenging to manage and Action encountered its share of issues in logistics and distribution and within certain product categories in 2017. These challenges, together with building a pan-European infrastructure to cope with the medium-term ambition of €10 billion of revenues, will have a dampening effect on the rate of profit growth expected this year, as they did in 2017. But Action is an exceptional business, it is still likely to generate sector-leading sales and profit growth in 2018 and this ongoing investment in logistics and infrastructure will facilitate its considerable medium-term growth potential.

Notwithstanding the above, Action remains very cash generative due to its asset-light model and structurally negative working capital, and the company completed its fifth refinancing in March 2018. The proceeds of the €2.4 billion refinancing supported a return of capital to shareholders, of which 3i received £307 million, taking total distributions to 3i since investment to £834 million, a 7.1x cash return to date.

Our other long-term hold asset, Scandlines, had a significant year. 3i, together with Eurofund V ("EFV"), initially invested €81 million (3i only: £31 million) to acquire a 40% stake in Scandlines in 2007. We purchased a further 10% stake for €43 million (3i only: £21 million) in 2010 before acquiring the final 50% stake for €165 million (3i only: £77 million) in 2013. Scandlines now has two highly efficient ferry routes linking Continental Europe to Scandinavia and as a result of investing in its ferry capacity, increasing the frequency of crossings and investing in its border shops, generates significant and stable cash flows. This characteristic meant that, in July 2017, Scandlines completed an €862 million infrastructure debt refinancing, which substantially reduced its long-term cost of debt.

Together, these initiatives enabled us to announce the sale of Scandlines to funds managed by First State Investments and Hermes Investment Management for an equity value of €1.7 billion in March 2018. This represents a 7.4x money multiple on our total investment, and a 5.8x multiple on our further investment in 2013. 3i remains committed to the business and will reinvest c.€600 million to hold a 35% stake, alongside First State Investments and Hermes Investment Management, as we expect to generate attractive returns and receive regular cash dividends over the medium term. This will provide an important contribution to the Group's operating cash position.

Portfolio performance

The portfolio of investments put together between 2013 and 2016 is creating significant value with notable increases from Basic-Fit, Scandlines, Audley Travel and Weener Plastic ("WP"). In addition, we sold ATESTEO for a money multiple of 4.8x in February 2018. As at 31 March 2018, our 2013-2016 vintage had already achieved a money multiple of 2.1x (31 March 2017: 1.7x).

It is inevitable that there will be some challenges in any Private Equity portfolio and our German high street jeweller, Christ, continues to suffer from structural changes in the retail sector such as the heavily discounted Black Friday weekend and the relentless shift to online. Christ saw the largest decline in value of the year at £53 million and we are working with management to develop a medium-term plan to help protect its strong brand as it meets these headwinds.

We have been active investors over the last two years and, because of the competitive environment, we have specifically targeted primary buy-out or family company investments, as well as companies that require a degree of operational improvement. Our agenda on buying these companies can be very intensive in terms of reshaping the business, restructuring finances, improving operational efficiency, investing for growth and changing or professionalising management. These situations often involve significant early cash investment, as well as being operationally disruptive.

This in turn means that returns can be modest in the early years of our ownership but then accelerate rapidly towards exit. Schlemmer, Formel D and BoConcept are good examples of investments which are undergoing this type of radical change programme.

Our proprietary capital model means that we do not have the same pressure to invest capital for the sake of generating fees. Our teams have the time to seek out interesting companies and build relationships with management teams long before any auction process starts.

FY2018 was a good year for investment. We invested £587 million in four companies at sensible prices: Hans Anders, Lampenwelt, Formel D and Cirtec Medical (including a follow-on investment to support its acquisition of Vascotube). Our £135 million investment in Royal Sanders, announced in February 2018, completed in April 2018. We also announced our c.$150 million investment in ICE (International Cruise & Excursions), a leading provider of loyalty and travel solutions in April 2018, which is expected to complete by June 2018.

We have invested in a number of companies in recent years, such as WP, Cirtec Medical ("Cirtec"), Ponroy Santé and Q Holding, which are platform assets that can pursue growth through bolt-on acquisitions or strategic M&A. All of these companies are in sectors with high growth potential where there is significant opportunity to scale up and build value. Recent acquisitions in our portfolio ranged from smaller add-ons in WP to Cirtec's transformative acquisition of Vascotube and Ponroy Santé's acquisition of Aragan.

An outstanding year for Infrastructure

We have two broad priorities in Infrastructure. First, we are focused on our advisory relationship with 3iN and the delivery of good returns from its portfolio. Second, our expertise in the sector is allowing us to develop complementary fund management initiatives in Europe and North America in order to build the Group's fund management income and contribute to our operating cash position.

Our Infrastructure team had a very strong year. It advised 3iN on its disposals of Elenia and AWG, 3iN's last investments in regulated utilities, generating proceeds of £1.1 billion and returns of 4.5x and 3.3x cost respectively. The value uplifts from these sales were returned to 3iN shareholders via a £425 million special dividend in March 2018, of which 3i received £143 million. In addition, we advised 3iN on six investments in mid-market economic infrastructure businesses totalling £525 million. Our main priority this year will be to ensure that these recent investments deliver good performance. The 3i team, together with the 3iN Board, has done an outstanding job in repositioning 3iN's portfolio away from an increasing level of regulatory risk. The realisations of Elenia and AWG produced excellent financial returns and reinforced 3i's reputation as one of the leading infrastructure investment teams in Europe.

3iN's total return for the year was 29%, the highest since its IPO in 2007 and, for those shareholders who invested in 3iN's £385 million capital raise in June 2016 (including 3i Group), the 31% return on their investment is impressive.

During the year, we raised two new funds, the £700 million 3i Managed Infrastructure Acquisitions LP and the 3i European Operational Projects Fund ("EOPF"). There was strong investor demand for EOPF, which had its final close in April 2018 with €456 million of commitments, ahead of its €400 million target. The team is focused on sourcing assets for the fund and has invested or committed to invest €85 million of that capital so far.

Our new US Infrastructure team completed its first investment in Smarte Carte in November 2017 as a seed for the North America fund management strategy. We made a further investment in January 2018 to support Smarte Carte's acquisition of Aviation Mobility, and the team completed a $225 million refinancing of Smarte Carte in March 2018. Over the last 12 months, we have recruited selectively to build a team in the US and they are now busy with an interesting pipeline of opportunities.

Our Infrastructure platform is an important source of fund management fee income. As a result of the increase in investment activity, we generated £50 million of fee income (2017: £36 million), a performance fee of £90 million from 3iN (2017: £4 million) and closed the year with assets under management of £3.4 billion (31 March 2017: £2.9 billion).

Proprietary capital model underpinned by our strong balance sheet

We ended the year with net cash of £479 million (31 March 2017: £419 million). FY2018 was an outstanding year for realisations but generally we expect to hold high levels of cash and liquidity to ensure that we can continue to invest without having to accelerate realisations ahead of their full potential.

Our proprietary capital is the cornerstone of the 3i business model, supported by a complementary fund management platform in Infrastructure, which ensures our shareholders benefit from access to our Private Equity investment returns with minimal dilution from the costs of running our business. 3i aims to be the investor of choice in its core sectors of Business and Technology Services, Consumer and Industrial. Our long history of investing in the mid-market with a consistent, local, on the ground, presence in northern Europe and North America gives us a sustainable origination advantage. Our ungeared balance sheet allows us to be competitive and move fast for the right businesses.

To ensure that our proprietary capital model is as efficient as possible, we remain disciplined on firm costs. We closed our Madrid office this year following the sale of Mémora, our last significant Private Equity asset in Spain. Operating cash profit increased to £11 million (2017: £5 million) as advisory income from Infrastructure improved and cash operating expenses declined marginally to £115 million (2017: £116 million).

Outlook

We enter FY2019 with a good level of momentum across the Group and, while the wider geo-political environment remains challenging, we are confident in our ability to deliver continued strong growth for shareholders together with healthy dividends. We will stay focused on the mid market, maintain our discipline on pricing for new investments and use the rigour of our investment processes to manage our two portfolios actively.

I would like to thank the 3i team for their good work and contribution to yet another strong year for the Group. These excellent results are a further demonstration that 3i's strategy is capable of delivering consistently good returns. Our fund management initiatives, together with our reinvestment into Scandlines, will generate important cash income for the Group while our proprietary capital portfolio remains well positioned to generate top tier capital returns.

Simon Borrows

Chief Executive

Private Equity

Business review

Our Private Equity business generated very strong returns in FY2018 with a GIR of £1,438 million, or 30% on the opening portfolio (2017: £1,624 million, 43%), and realisations of £1,002 million (2017: £982 million). Despite continued political uncertainty and highly competitive markets, assets including Action, Audley Travel and Basic-Fit performed well. The team made investments of £587 million and delivered very strong returns from the realisation of ATESTEO and the upcoming exit of Scandlines.

Investment activity

We had a very busy year, completing four new investments and a number of further acquisitions. We invested £95 million in Lampenwelt, the largest European online specialist retailer in the lighting space and £172 million in Hans Anders, a value-for-money optical retailer based in the Netherlands. We invested £132 million in Formel D, a service provider to the automotive and component supply industry based in Germany, bringing in CITIC Capital as a co-investor to facilitate Formel D's expansion in China and £103 million in Cirtec, a leading provider of outsourced medical device design, engineering and manufacturing, headquartered in the US.

An important component of our investment strategy is our ability to facilitate transformative M&A in our portfolio companies. In November 2017, we completed a further investment in Cirtec to support its acquisition of Vascotube, an outsourced medical device manufacturer based in Germany. This transaction represented an attractive opportunity to add a European manufacturer whose product is used in the fast-growing minimally invasive sector that Cirtec specialises in. We also invested £10 million in Ponroy Santé to support its acquisition of Aragan, a designer and distributor of premium pharmaceutical food supplements. Finally, together with EFV, 3i acquired £11 million of Action shares from other shareholders.

In addition to the £587 million investment completed in the year to 31 March 2018, our £135 million investment in Royal Sanders, a leading European private label and contract manufacturing producer of personal care products, completed on 3 April 2018.

In April 2018, we also announced a c.$150 million investment in International Cruises and Excursions, a global travel and loyalty company that connects leading brands, travel suppliers and end consumers. The acquisition is expected to complete by June 2018.

Table 1: Private Equity cash investment in the year to 31 March 2018

Realisations activity

Market conditions remained favourable, resulting in some highly competitive exit processes. As a result, we generated proceeds of £603 million from the sale of eight companies, realising an average money multiple of 2.4x (2017: £621 million, 1.8x). The sale of ATESTEO generated proceeds of £278 million and a money multiple on our investment of 4.8x. This is an excellent result from one of our 2013-2016 vintage investments. In addition, we completed the sale of some of our older investments, such as Mémora and MKM, as well as Óticas Carol, our last remaining investment in Brazil. We sold all of our remaining quoted stakes in Dphone and Refresco Gerber.

Where appropriate, we refinance our strongest assets when market conditions and trading performance allow. In July 2017, Scandlines completed an €862 million refinancing, which resulted in £50 million of proceeds for 3i. In November 2017, we completed the second refinancing of ATESTEO, which generated proceeds of £30 million. Action's strong growth and cash flow generation enabled it to de-lever rapidly during 2017, allowing a €2.4 billion refinancing in March 2018, which resulted in a £307 million distribution to 3i. Since our investment in 2011, Action has returned £834 million of refinancing proceeds to 3i, a 7.1x cash return on our investment to date.

In aggregate, we generated total proceeds of £1,002 million (2017: £982 million) and realised profits of £199 million in the year (2017: £38 million).

As at 31 March 2018, the portfolio comprised 35 assets and one quoted stake (31 March 2017: 37 assets and three quoted stakes).

In March 2018, we announced the sale of Scandlines and our partial reinvestment together with funds managed by First State Investments and Hermes Investment Management. The effect of these transactions will be accounted for when the transaction completes, expected to be in the summer of 2018.

Table 2: Private Equity realisations in the year to 31 March 2018

Portfolio valuation

The strong performance of the portfolio resulted in unrealised value growth of £1,080 million (2017: £1,274 million).

Performance

The strong performance of the investments valued on an earnings basis resulted in an increase in value of £541 million (2017: £827 million) with the most significant contribution coming from Action. At 31 March 2018, Action was valued using run-rate earnings at 31 March 2018. Action's post discount run-rate multiple increased to 16.5x (31 March 2017: 16.0x) resulting in a value of £2,064 million (31 March 2017: £1,708 million) after the receipt of £307 million from its refinancing. As the largest Private Equity investment by value, it represented 35% of the Private Equity portfolio (31 March 2017: 35%).

A number of investments in our 2013-2016 vintage such as Audley Travel, Aspen Pumps, Q Holding and WP are delivering good earnings growth, and therefore we recognised good value uplifts on these assets in the year.

Audley Travel is a provider of luxury, tailor-made, holidays to over 80 destinations worldwide, and serves clients principally in the UK and the US. Since our investment in December 2015, Audley has seen two successive years of strong revenue growth in the UK and US and has continued to invest in order to further scale the business. As a result, our £156 million investment was valued at £233 million at 31 March 2018. 3i invested in WP, an innovative plastic packaging manufacturer, in August 2015. The business performed well in 2017, increasing market share. It completed one small acquisition in 2017, as well as two further acquisitions in early 2018. Our investment was valued at £244 million at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: £200 million).

The good performance of our strongest assets was partially offset by specific weaknesses in a small number of portfolio companies which are either exposed to the high street retail sector or are undergoing a change programme. Christ, our German jewellery retailer, saw the largest decline in value in the year (£53 million). Consistent with other retailers, Christ is subject to structural changes in the market such as the increasing shift to online shopping. Although Christ is maintaining market share, these changes have impacted earnings.

Schlemmer has undertaken a significant operational reorganisation of its activities in Germany and the US, which have impacted earnings and liquidity this year. BoConcept was acquired in the knowledge that its organisational and retail structure would need careful review and good progress is being made to address this. Finally, Euro-Diesel's growth was lower than expected this year. Notwithstanding this, the company has a strong customer base and a full pipeline of orders for 2018.

Overall, 91% of the assets in the portfolio valued on an earnings basis, together with Scandlines and Basic-Fit, grew their earnings in the year (2017: 93%). One investment was valued using forecast earnings at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: one), representing 1% of the portfolio by value (31 March 2017: 2%). Table 4 shows the earnings growth of our top 20 assets.

Overall, net debt across the portfolio increased to 4.0x earnings (31 March 2017: 3.3x) principally due to the refinancing of Action and Scandlines. Excluding Action and Scandlines, the ratio was 3.3x (31 March 2017: 2.9x). Table 5 shows the ratio of net debt to earnings by portfolio value at 31 March 2018.

Table 3: Unrealised profits/(losses) on the revaluation of Private Equity investments1 in the year to 31 March

Multiple movements

The increase in value due to multiple movements was £144 million (2017: £239 million increase). The run-rate multiple used to value Action increased to 16.5x post liquidity discount at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: 16.0x) to reflect its continued strong performance and potential for further growth in the seven countries it operates in. Based on the valuation at 31 March 2018, a net 1x movement in Action's post discount multiple would increase or decrease the valuation of 3i's investment by £176 million (31 March 2017: £142 million).

Across the remainder of the portfolio, we increased multiples for a number of assets where their performance or the strength of their sector merited a review. Generally, we consider a number of factors such as relative performance, investment size, comparable recent transactions and exit plans. We also consider the current strength of equity markets and, as a result, we selected multiples that were lower than the comparable set in 14 out of the 21 companies valued on an earnings basis (31 March 2017: 14 out of 22).

Excluding Action, the weighted average EBITDA multiple increased to 11.7x before liquidity discount (31 March 2017: 10.6x) and was 11.0x after liquidity discount (31 March 2017: 9.9x). The increase in the weighted average multiple reflects in part the recent investment in companies in higher rated sectors, such as Cirtec and Lampenwelt, and the sale of assets held at lower multiples.

The pre-discount multiples used to value the portfolio ranged between 8.5x and 17.4x (31 March 2017: 5.0x to 16.8x) and the post discount multiples ranged between 6.3x and 16.5x (31 March 2017: 4.8x to 16.0x).

Table 4: Portfolio earnings growth of the top 20 Private Equity1 investments

Table 5: Ratio of net debt to earnings1

Scandlines transaction value

In March 2018, we announced the sale of Scandlines for a total equity value of €1.7 billion (31 March 2017 value: €1.1 billion). 3i valued its stake at £803 million at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: £538 million) and we recognised unrealised value growth of £302 million to reflect the value of the transaction, less a 2.5% discount.

At the completion of the sale, 3i will reinvest to hold a 35% stake.

Quoted portfolio

Basic-Fit generated strong growth in its 2017 financial year with revenue and profit up by 26% and 25% respectively. The business ended the year with 521 clubs and 1.5 million members. This strong performance was reflected in the share price increasing to €23.35 at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: €16.27) and resulted in an unrealised value gain of £81 million in the year. 3i's stake was valued at £270 million at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: £184 million).

Our quoted holdings in Dphone and Refresco Gerber were sold during the year.

Assets under management

The value of 3i's proprietary capital increased to £5.8 billion in the year (31 March 2017: £4.8 billion).

The value of the portfolio including third-party capital increased to €9.5 billion (31 March 2017: €8.1 billion).

Table 6: Quoted portfolio value movement for the year to 31 March 2018

Table 7: Private Equity assets by geography as at 31 March

Table 8: Proprietary capital as at 31 March

1 Assets included in these vintages are disclosed in the glossary.

Infrastructure

Business review

Infrastructure contributed a gross investment return of £113 million, or 16% on the opening portfolio (2017: £87 million, 17%). This was driven by 3iN's strong share price appreciation together with good levels of dividend and fee income from both 3iN and the other funds managed by the team.

Investment adviser to 3iN

In its capacity as 3iN's investment adviser, 3i advised on six new investments, including the £186 million further investment to acquire a majority position in Wireless Infrastructure Group and the £125 million follow-on investment in Infinis to support its acquisition of Alkane Energy. We also advised 3iN on its €201 million investment in Attero, announced at the end of March 2018. In total, we advised 3iN on investments and commitments of £525 million in 2018 (2017: £479 million).

We advised 3iN on the realisation of its holdings in Elenia and AWG, generating proceeds of £1,137 million. Elenia, the owner and operator of the second largest electricity distribution business in Finland and a complementary district heating business, was acquired by 3iN in January 2012 as part of a consortium. In December 2017, the consortium partners agreed to sell the business, which resulted in proceeds of £738 million for 3iN.

3iN agreed to sell its stake in AWG, the supplier of water and water recycling services to the east of England and Hartlepool, in December 2017, having held its stake since its IPO in 2007. It received proceeds of £399 million from the transaction in February 2018.

In March 2018, £425 million of the proceeds were returned to shareholders as a special dividend, representing substantially all of the value uplift recorded on Elenia and AWG during the year. As a 34% shareholder, 3i received £143 million of the special dividend.

Overall, the 3iN portfolio continues to perform well and the company generated an excellent total return of 29% in the year (2017: 9%).

Under the terms of the investment advisory agreement, 3iN paid an advisory fee of £34 million to 3i (2017: £25 million), with the increase attributable to new investment activity, and a NAV-based performance fee of £90 million (2017: £4 million). Of this, £67 million is expected to be payable to the Infrastructure team, with £9 million recognised during the year and the balance deferred and expensed over a number of years.

Infrastructure portfolio performance

Quoted

The most significant component of the Group's infrastructure portfolio is its 34% quoted stake in 3iN.

3iN's shares performed well in the year and the share price closed at 214 pence on 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: 189 pence). 3iN generated £27 million (2017: £23 million) of dividend income as well as a special dividend of £143 million (2017: nil) for 3i.

Discounted cash flow

As at 31 March 2018, 3i's largest Infrastructure investment valued on a DCF basis was the investment in Smarte Carte, valued at £167 million (31 March 2017: nil). Following the initial investment in November 2017 as a seed for the North America fund management strategy, 3i supported Smarte Carte's acquisition of Aviation Mobility in January 2018. In March 2018, we completed a $225 million refinancing of Smarte Carte.

3i also has an investment in the 3i India Infrastructure Fund, which the team continues to manage to maximise value for fund investors.

In total, the Infrastructure portfolio generated unrealised value growth of £83 million (2017: £59 million).

Table 9: Unrealised profits/(losses) on the revaluation of Infrastructure investments1 in the year to 31 March

Fund Management

We launched two funds in the year to complement our 3iN mandate and generate increased cash income for 3i in the medium term.

In June 2017, we closed the c.£700 million 3i Managed Infrastructure Acquisitions LP and invested £30 million into the fund alongside two pension funds, ATP and APG. The fund holds investments in East Surrey Pipelines, Belfast City Airport, HerAmbiente and a number of discrete PPP projects.

In April 2018, we announced the final close of the 3i European Operational Projects Fund with commitments of €456 million, including a €40 million commitment from 3i. This fund purchased the majority of the PPP assets held by 3i's existing BEIF II fund. The fund has invested and committed to invest approximately €85 million in operational PPP projects across Europe.

Assets under management and advisory agreement

Infrastructure AUM increased to £3.4 billion (31 March 2017: £2.9 billion) principally due to the new fund management initiatives launched in the year, as well as to 3iN's share price increase.

Table 10: Infrastructure portfolio value movement in the year to 31 March 2018

Table 11: Assets under management and advisory agreement as at 31 March 2018

Financial review

Strong financial performance

FY2018 was another year of strong financial performance. We generated a gross investment return of £1,552 million (2017: £1,755 million) and operating profit before carried interest of £1,428 million (2017: £1,675 million).

The performance was driven by strong unrealised value growth from Action, Scandlines and Basic-Fit, and the material uplifts from the disposals of ATESTEO and Mémora in the year.

The Group recognised a loss of £16 million on foreign exchange translation (2017: £297 million gain).

We generated a total return of £1,425 million or a profit on opening shareholders' funds of 24% (2017: £1,592 million or 36%). As a result of the strong performance in the year, the diluted NAV per share at 31 March 2018 increased by 20% to 724 pence (31 March 2017: 604 pence).

Table 12: Total return for the year to 31 March

Realised profits

We generated total proceeds of £1,323 million (2017: £1,005 million) and a profit on disposal of £207 million (2017: £38 million). The majority of the realisations and uplift over opening value were from the Private Equity portfolio, which contributed £1,002 million of proceeds (2017: £982 million). Private Equity realisations included the sales of ATESTEO (£278 million, 100% uplift over opening value) and Mémora (£119 million, 37% uplift over opening value) together with refinancing proceeds of £387 million from Action, Scandlines and ATESTEO.

Unrealised value movements

We recognised an unrealised value movement of £1,163 million (2017: £1,342 million). Action's continued strong performance contributed £610 million (2017: £911 million) to value growth. Following the announcement of our agreement to sell Scandlines at the end of March 2018, we recognised an unrealised value gain of £302 million (2017: £155 million). The majority of the portfolio continued to perform well, notably Basic-Fit, Audley Travel, Q Holding, WP and AES.

Further information on the Private Equity and Infrastructure valuations is included in the respective Business reviews.

Table 13: Unrealised profits on revaluation of investments (continuing operations) for the year to 31 March

Portfolio income

Portfolio income grew to £171 million during the year (2017: £106 million) principally as a result of an increase in loan interest income receivable following the material increase in investment activity over the last two years. The majority of this interest income is non-cash. We recognised £14 million of fee income (2017: £6 million) due to transaction fees generated from our investment activity and to a reduction in abort costs incurred on prospective transactions. Dividend income reduced to £41 million (2017: £50 million) following the disposal of the remaining Debt Management investments in the year.

Fees receivable from external funds

Fees receivable increased to £57 million (2017: £46 million) due to increased advisory fee income from 3iN. 3i, as investment adviser, receives a fee for sourcing and completing new investments for 3iN. We advised 3iN on six investments with commitments of £525 million, including the further investments in Wireless Infrastructure Group and Infinis (2017: six investments and £479 million). In addition, we started to generate fee income from the 3i Managed Infrastructure Acquisitions LP, which closed in June 2017.

Operating expenses

Operating expenses increased to £121 million (2017: £117 million), principally due to a planned increase in staff costs as we invest to support our origination and asset management capability, as well as an increase in the Infrastructure team's share of the 3iN advisory fee income referred to above.

Operating cash profit

3i generated an operating cash profit of £11 million in the year (2017: £5 million). Cash income increased to £126 million (2017: £121 million) principally due to the increase in third-party capital fees in Infrastructure to £47 million (2017: £37 million).

Table 14: Operating cash profit for the year to 31 March

Net interest payable

Gross interest payable reduced to £37 million (2017: £49 million), following the repayment of the €331 million bond in March 2017. Interest receivable on cash balances was £2 million (2017: £2 million).

Carried interest and performance fees

The continued good performance of Action and the announcement of the sale of Scandlines, the largest investments in our Private Equity fund EFV, led to a £136 million increase in carried interest receivable from EFV (2017: £272 million). This was calculated assuming that the portfolio was realised at the 31 March 2018 valuation. The fund's gross multiple was 2.5x at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: 2.2x).

In Private Equity, we typically accrue carried interest payable at between 10% and 15% of gross investment return. The majority of assets by value are now held in schemes that would have met their performance hurdles, assuming that the portfolio was realised at the 31 March 2018 valuation. We accrued carried interest payable of £196 million (2017: £431 million) for Private Equity, of which £77 million relates to the Private Equity team's share of carried interest receivable from EFV (2017: £202 million).

Carried interest is paid to participants when the performance hurdles are passed in cash terms and then only when the cash proceeds are actually received following a realisation, refinancing event or other cash distribution. Due to the length of time between investment and realisation, the schemes are usually active for a number of years and their participants are both current and previous employees of 3i. During the period, £43 million was paid to participants in the Private Equity plans (2017: £127 million).

3iN pays a performance fee based on 3iN's NAV on an annual basis, subject to a hurdle rate of return and a high watermark. The continued strong performance of the assets held by 3iN, including the significant uplifts achieved on the sales of Elenia and AWG, resulted in the recognition of £90 million (2017: £4 million) of performance fees receivable. The Infrastructure team receives a share of the performance fee received from 3iN, with the majority of payments deferred and expensed over a number of years. £9 million (2017: £3 million) was accrued as payable to the Infrastructure team during the year out of a total potential payable of £67 million.

Overall, the effect of the income statement charge, the cash movement, as well as the currency translation meant that the balance sheet carried interest and performance fees payable increased to £870 million (31 March 2017: £685 million) and the receivable increased to £596 million (31 March 2017: £366 million).

Table 15: Carried interest and performance fees for the year to 31 March

Table 16: Carried interest and performance fees at 31 March

Impact of IFRS 15

Carried interest receivable is within the scope of the new revenue accounting standard, IFRS 15, which 3i will adopt from 1 April 2018. IFRS 15 introduces the concept that variable revenue can only be recognised to the extent that it is highly probable that a significant reversal will not occur. Our calculation of carried interest, being the amount expected if all of the underlying investments were realised at their fair values at the balance sheet date, will remain unchanged. IFRS 15 requires us to then consider if there are any specific constraints to our income recognition. The factors that 3i intends to consider when applying its accounting policy for carried interest receivable will include the remaining duration of the fund, the current position in relation to the cash hurdle, the remaining assets in the fund and the potential for clawback.

The substantial majority of 3i's carried interest receivable is due from EFV which went through its performance hurdle on an accounting basis in FY2017. EFV has been extended to November 2019, when we expect the fund to be closed. Following the announcement of the sale of Scandlines on 26 March 2018, there are only four remaining investments in the fund: Action, Christ, Etanco and OneMed. Carried interest is only payable by the fund when proceeds are received and the cash hurdle is met.

At 31 March 2018, EFV investments had generated proceeds of €3.5 billion, including the proceeds from the upcoming sale of Scandlines, and the fund was over 75% of the way towards its cash hurdle. However, given the relative size and performance of Christ, Etanco and OneMed, the actual payment of carried interest receivable is dependent on the fund's realisation of Action. At 31 March 2018, the EFV investment in Action was valued at €1,815 million (31 March 2017: €1,540 million). Given the strong performance of Action, and its forecast growth profile, and consistent with our investment strategy for and valuation of the asset, our current assessment is that we do not expect the adoption of IFRS 15 to have a material impact on our recognition of carry receivable from EFV.

As at 31 March 2018, the carried interest receivable accrued on 3i's balance sheet from EFV was £484 million (2017: £340 million), with a corresponding £334 million (31 March 2017: £251 million) accrued as payable to the carry plan participants. The overall net impact from EFV carried interest is £150 million (31 March 2017: £89 million) or 15 pence per share (2017: 9 pence per share).

As the Group has no plans to raise a third-party fund in Private Equity in the medium term, the Group is not expected to receive material amounts of carried interest receivable after the closure of EFV.

Net foreign exchange movements

At 31 March 2018, 77% of the Group's net assets were denominated in euros or US dollars. Following the strengthening of sterling against the US dollar, the Group recorded a total net foreign exchange loss of £16 million (2017: £297 million gain) in the year.

The Group is a long-term investor and does not hedge its foreign currency denominated portfolio. Where possible, flows from currency realisations are matched with currency investments. Short-term derivative contracts are used occasionally.

The net foreign exchange loss also reflects the translation of non-portfolio net assets, including non-sterling cash held at the balance sheet date.

Table 17: Net assets and sensitivity by currency at 31 March 2018

Pension

The latest triennial valuation for the Group's UK defined benefit scheme was completed on 25 September 2017, based on the scheme's position at 30 June 2016. The outcome was an actuarial deficit of £50 million but it was agreed with the trustees that it was not necessary for the Group to make any immediate contributions to the plan, taking into account the volatile market conditions at the valuation date (immediately after the UK's referendum to leave the EU), and improvements in market conditions and liability management actions implemented since then. As part of this valuation, the Group has agreed to pay up to £50 million to the scheme if its gearing increases above 20%, gross debt exceeds £1 billion, or net assets fall below £2 billion.

The scheme also benefits from a contingent asset arrangement, details of which are provided in Note 25 of the Annual report and accounts 2018. If the gearing, net debt or net asset thresholds noted are crossed, the Group may be required to increase the potential cover provided by the contingent arrangement until the gearing, gross debt or net assets improve.

On an IAS 19 basis, there was a £1 million re-measurement gain on the Group's UK pension scheme during the year (March 2017: £22 million loss) and the pension scheme remains in a surplus of £125 million (31 March 2017: £121 million).

The triennial valuation uses assumptions set at 30 June 2016. It considers expected future returns on the Plan's assets against the expected liabilities using a generally more prudent set of assumptions. The IAS 19 accounting valuation compares the 31 March 2018 fair value of plan assets and liabilities, with the liabilities calculated based on the expected future payments discounted using AA corporate bond yields.

Tax

The Group's parent company has operated in the UK as an approved investment trust company since its listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1994. An approved investment trust is a UK investment company which is required to meet certain conditions set out in the UK tax rules to obtain and maintain its tax status. This approval allows certain investment profits of the Company, broadly its capital profits, to be exempt from tax in the UK.

The Group recognised a corporate tax expense of £26 million for the year (2017: £3 million credit). This is higher than in previous years due to increased levels of taxable income from portfolio companies, reduced interest expenditure following the repayment of a bond in March 2017 and a £90 million performance fee from 3iN. Finally, the use of brought forward losses has been restricted with effect from 1 April 2017.

Other assets

In March 2017, we sold our Debt Management business to Investcorp. As part of the agreement we retained certain investments, which are detailed in Table 18. We redeemed all of our holdings by 31 December 2017, generating proceeds of £152 million.

Table 18: Other assets for the year to 31 March 2018

Balance sheet

Net cash increased to £479 million (31 March 2017: £419 million) as the Group remained a net divestor in FY2018. The investment portfolio value increased to £6,657 million at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: £5,675 million) as unrealised value growth of £1,163 million and cash investment offset the value of realisations in the year. Further information on investments and realisations is included in the Private Equity and Infrastructure business reviews.

Liquidity

Liquidity remained strong at £1,404 million (31 March 2017: £1,323 million). Liquidity comprised cash and deposits of £1,054 million (31 March 2017: £994 million) and undrawn facilities of £350 million (31 March 2017: £329 million).

Dividend

The Board has recommended a dividend of 22.0 pence (2017: 18.5 pence). This is made up of the balance of the base dividend (8 pence per share, after the 8 pence paid in January 2018) and an additional dividend of 14.0 pence. Subject to shareholder approval, the dividend will be paid to shareholders in July 2018 and takes the total dividend for the year to 30.0 pence (2017: 26.5 pence).

In light of the Group's continued progress in executing its strategy, we propose to replace our base and additional dividend policy with a simpler policy. The Board will maintain its conservative balance sheet strategy, which excludes structural gearing at the Group level, and will carefully consider the outlook for investments and realisations, and market conditions. Subject to that, the Board will aim to maintain or grow the dividend each year. We will continue to pay an interim dividend, which we expect to set at 50% of the prior year's total dividend, subject to the same considerations.

With net cash of £479 million and liquidity of over £1 billion at 31 March 2018, the Group is well positioned to fund the 22.0 pence dividend. We expect to hold high levels of liquidity to ensure that we can fund new investments without having to either accelerate realisations ahead of plan or dispose of investments when market conditions are not supportive. However, there may be occasions in the future when the cash we hold materially exceeds this need. If that is the case, the Board may consider other methods of shareholder distributions and returns at that time.

Table 19: Simplified consolidated balance sheet at 31 March

Investment basis

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

for the year to 31 March

Consolidated statement of financial position

as at 31 March

Consolidated cash flow statementfor the year to 31 March

Background to Investment basis financial statements

The Group makes investments in portfolio companies directly, held by 3i Group plc, and indirectly, held through intermediate holding company and partnership structures ("Investment entity subsidiaries"). It also has other operational subsidiaries which provide services and other activities such as employment, regulatory activities, management and advice ("Trading subsidiaries"). The application of IFRS 10 requires us to fair value a number of intermediate holding companies that were previously consolidated line by line. This fair value approach, applied at the intermediate holding company level, effectively obscures the performance of our proprietary capital investments and associated transactions occurring in the intermediate holding companies.

The financial effect of the underlying portfolio companies and fee income, operating expenses and carried interest transactions occurring in Investment entity subsidiaries are aggregated into a single value. Other items which were previously eliminated on consolidation are now included separately.

To maintain transparency in our report and aid understanding we introduced separate non-GAAP "Investment basis" Statements of comprehensive income, financial position and cash flow in our 2014 Annual report and accounts. The Investment basis is an APM and the Strategic report is prepared using the Investment basis as we believe it provides a more understandable view of our performance. Total return and net assets are equal under the Investment basis and IFRS; the Investment basis is simply a "look through" of IFRS 10 to present the underlying performance.

Reconciliation of Investment basis and IFRS

A detailed reconciliation from the Investment basis to IFRS basis of the Consolidated statement of comprehensive income, Consolidated statement of financial position and Consolidated cash flow statement is shown below.

Reconciliation of Investment basis and IFRS

Reconciliation of consolidated statement of comprehensive income

for the year to 31 March

The IFRS basis is audited and the Investment basis is unaudited.

Notes:

Reconciliation of consolidated statement of financial position

as at 31 March

The IFRS basis is audited and the Investment basis is unaudited.

Notes:

Reconciliation of consolidated cash flow statement

for the year to 31 March