20 March 2025
3i Group plc
Action Capital Markets Seminar and
portfolio update
3i Group plc ("3i", or "the Group")
will be holding a capital markets seminar this morning, involving
presentations from the management team of Action, our largest
portfolio company. A live webcast of the seminar will take place at
10:00 (UK time). To register for the webcast, please visit
https://www.3i.com/investor-relations.
An on-demand webcast of the seminar will also be available by the
end of the day.
In its 2024 financial year Action
generated net sales of €13,781 million and operating EBITDA of
€2,076 million, 22% and 29% respectively higher than in 2023.
Like-for-like sales growth was 10.3% and the business added 352
stores in the year. Operating leverage and good cost discipline
were the main drivers behind the increased EBITDA margin of
15.1%.
Action has made a good start to 2025.
In the period to the end of week 11, Action's net sales were €2.95
billion, 17% ahead of the same period in 2024. Like-for-like sales
growth in the first 11 weeks of the year was 6.1%, with growth in
transactions being 6.5%. The YTD like-for-like sales have been
affected by temporary availability issues in certain stores and DCs
as a result of the changeover of Action's ERP system at the turn of
the year. These issues have now been dealt with. The business has
added 38 stores in the year to date. Cash and cash equivalents as
at 16 March 2025 was €927 million. Action is planning to make
another dividend payment to shareholders in the last week of
March.
The following guidance for Action's
year to December 2025 will be set out during the
presentation.
|
Like-for-like sales growth
|
Above YTD like-for-like sales and in
the mid to high single digit range
|
|
Net
store opening target
|
c.370
|
|
EBITDA margin expansion
|
+c.10-20 bps from 15.1% for the 12
months to 29 December 2024
|
Action's estimate of white space
potential in existing and identified in-scope countries in Europe
will be updated to 4,850 stores in addition to the 2,918 existing
stores at the end of 2024. This represents an increase of c.500
from the white space estimate given last year.
In March 2025, Action completed a
successful, leverage neutral repricing of c.53% of its debt
facilities, generating an annual interest cost saving of c.€19
million, in addition to the c.€14 million of annual interest
savings generated through the amend, extend and repricing
transaction executed in November 2024.
We have recently completed our
semi-annual portfolio company review meetings. Our other long
term hold asset Royal Sanders continues to trade well. The PE
portfolio more generally continues to make good progress against a
difficult macro and uncertain geo-political environment with good
performance across a number of 3i's larger investments. Overall,
across the whole portfolio the performance in the initial weeks of
2025 was encouraging with only a small number still facing material
headwinds. Our full year results will be published in
May.
- Ends -
For
further information, contact:
Notes to editors:
About 3i Group
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.
