3i Group plc (LON:III) will be holding its Annual General Meeting this morning. At the AGM Simon Borrows, our Chief Executive, will provide an update on the portfolio.
Action has achieved very strong sales growth in the year to date. Like-for-like sales and footfall were significantly ahead of the prior year, although with a slightly reduced basket size. Inventory and supply chain continue to perform in line with plan with no significant issues despite the well documented global challenges. A clear and consistent focus on an outstanding quality customer offering at the lowest price continues to be Action’s top priority and has never been more relevant to customers across all of its geographies. Action is set for another good quarter of profit growth to the end of June and closed last week with a cash balance of some €550 million.
The remainder of the Private Equity portfolio continues to demonstrate overall resilience with the majority of the portfolio continuing to build on recent growth including Cirtec, Sanisure, nexeye (formerly Hans Anders), Tato, Havea, WilsonHCG and Yanga. As would be expected given current market conditions, a small number of companies in the portfolio are having to manage a combination of lower customer demand and inflationary pressures.
Despite short-term market volatility and macro-economic uncertainty our portfolio is well positioned and we increasingly see attractive opportunities to deploy capital. We remain confident in 3i Group’s potential to deliver significant longer-term compounding returns.
