15-05-2025
Action stations for overachieving 3i
Call it an Action replay. Once again 3i has delivered what its boss Simon Borrows justifiably calls a 'successful year' — despite the 'challenging macro-economic and geopolitical backdrop'. And chiefly because of a single business: its go-go discount retailer that's swept across 13 European countries.
Quiz Borrows on the full-year figures and you sense a bit of irritation that the focus is invariably on Action. As he puts it: 'We are not a one-club golfer,' pointing out that, since he took charge in May 2012, the rest of 3i's private equity portfolio has delivered an annual return averaging 17 per cent.
Then again, what else does he expect? When he arrived, Borrows reviewed 3i's 134-strong potpourri of investments and decided he needed 30 max. The
