Group strategy

Our strategy is to grow our assets and those the Group manages on behalf of third parties by using our relationships and knowledge to identify and invest in opportunities that can deliver high returns. Change provides opportunity, and as 3i operates across Europe, Asia and the US, the rapid rate of change in the global economy provides a significant number of investment opportunities where our knowledge and relationships, when combined with active management, can deliver real financial value.

We are constantly reviewing developments in the private equity markets, the competitiveness of our existing business lines and the potential to expand our access to good opportunities. Where appropriate, we use our capital to fund additional resources, to seed new proprietary business lines and to build relations with other investment managers who can give us exposure to an attractive market.

Our people are organised in self-standing teams whose structure is market-adapted, whose compensation is results-oriented, and which have as their principal objective the selection of the very best opportunities within our chosen asset classes. We seek to maximise our performance by the delivery of our collective knowledge and relationships to each investment opportunity. Our teams are both the contributors to, and the beneficiaries of, this culture of knowledge sharing.

Key to our strategy is attracting and developing people who can combine the requisite investment and professional experience with our cultural fit. Part of this culture is an active approach to managing development.

Our financial and risk management processes are focused on delivering targeted returns on asset specific pools of capital, whilst optimising the mix between returns on proprietary invested capital, income received from fees on third-party funds and setting appropriate leverage ratios.