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28 January 2021 3i Group plc FY2021 Q3 performance update si Another resilient quarter from the 3i investment portfolio Increase in NAV per share to 936 pence ( 30 September 2020 : 905 pence ) despite the negative translation effect of sterling strengthening in the quarter ( £ 156 million ) Total return of 18.7 % for the nine months to 31 December 2020 and 92 % of our top 20 Private Equity portfolio by value grew last 12 month ( " LTM " ) earnings to September 2020 Good sales , EBITDA and cash generation for Action in 2020 despite significant Covid - 19 disruption Continued very strong performance in portfolio companies operating in the consumer , e - commerce , healthcare and business services sectors Completed a new Private Equity investment in MPM and three bolt - on acquisitions for GartenHaus , Havea and Cirtec Medical . Signed a further bolt - on acquisition for Royal Sanders Good share price performance from 3i Infrastructure plc ( " 3iN " ) in the quarter Simon Borrows , Chief Executive , commented : " 3i delivered another solid performance in the quarter ending 31 December 2020. Both our Private Equity and Infrastructure teams have continued to perform well . Our Private Equity portfolio continues to benefit from secular growth trends , with 92 % of our top 20 investments by value growing LTM earnings to September 2020 , with particularly strong performances in our high growth investments . This was another decent quarter from Action which has bounced back very strongly after each lockdown interruption . " Private Equity Portfolio performance and valuation at 31 December 2020 The Private Equity portfolio continued to demonstrate resilient performance in the third quarter of FY2021 despite the return of significant disruption caused by the reintroduction of lockdowns and other Covid - 19 related restrictions throughout Europe and the UK . Recognising the particular interest of investors regarding how these additional lockdown measures have impacted the performance of Action , we are providing more information in this Q3 performance update than we ordinarily would do , noting that Action's 2020 year end audit is not yet complete . A more detailed update on its audited financial performance will be provided as usual at a separate Capital Markets Seminar in March . In the financial year ending 3 January 2021 , Action generated revenue growth of just over 10 % and opened 164 new stores , taking its total to 1,716 stores across eight countries . Provisional EBITDA , subject to audit , in 2020 was € 616 million , 14 % ahead of 2019. Action generated strong cash flow over the year , finishing with cash of € 590 million after the repayment of the outstanding RCF balance . Despite the periods of major disruption due to country lockdowns in March , April , May and again in November and December , like - for like ( " LFL " ) performance over 52 weeks came in at -1.4 % with the Netherlands , Germany , Poland and Luxembourg all trading well ahead of their budgets in both LFL and EBITDA for the year . Action started 2020 very strongly and traded ahead of budget for the first two months of the year . However , the spring lockdowns resulted in an EBITDA shortfall to budget of around € 85 million by the beginning of May . This shortfall reduced to less than € 15 million through very strong trading from May to the end of October . At this point , the further winter lockdown measures commencing in November reduced EBITDA