London, July 1, 2026, 22:01 (BST)
- 3i closed up 1.17% at 2,515p while the FTSE 100 fell 0.18%.
- Shares trade about 17% below 3i’s last reported NAV of 3,030p a share.
- Buyback is 34% used; remaining authority could retire about 19.7 million shares at Wednesday’s price.
- Action’s latest update showed year-to-date like-for-like sales growth at 3.3%, up from 2.4% six weeks earlier.
3i Group plc (LON:III) rose on Wednesday, leaving the FTSE 100 private-equity investor still priced well below its last reported net asset value even after fresh buyback and portfolio data eased some pressure around its largest asset, Dutch discount retailer Action.
The stock closed at 2,515p, up 29p, or 1.17%, while the FTSE 100 ended down 18.78 points, or 0.18%, at 10,478.34, according to Hargreaves Lansdown market data. The shares remain far below their 4,497p 52-week high and changed hands on volume of 2.998 million shares, AJ Bell data showed. HL
The gap to NAV is the cleaner angle. 3i reported NAV per share of 3,030p at March 31. At Wednesday’s close, the stock traded at a 17.0% discount to that number. 3i’s own consensus page, based on 12 analyst estimates published between March 12 and June 29, shows a median March 2027 NAV estimate of 3,486p, which puts the shares at a 27.9% discount to that forward median. 3i
| Measure | Figure | Discount implied by 2,515p share price |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday close | 2,515p | — |
| NAV at March 31, 2026 | 3,030p | 17.0% |
| Median analyst NAV estimate for March 31, 2027 | 3,486p | 27.9% |
That matters because 3i is buying back shares below book. In its June 29 filing, 3i said it had bought 11,330,230 shares for cancellation since the start of the programme at a cost of 253.6 million pounds, before fees and taxes. The programme is capped at 750 million pounds.
At Wednesday’s 25.15-pound share price, the unused 496.4 million pounds would buy about 19.7 million shares before costs. That is about 1.95% of the 1,013,381,733 voting shares reported after a June 30 share-plan allotment. Under a static March NAV and static price assumption, retiring that stock would add about 10p to NAV per share.
| Buyback item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Announced programme | £750.0 mln |
| Spent through June 26 | £253.6 mln |
| Programme used | 33.8% |
| Implied remaining spend | £496.4 mln |
| Shares that could be bought at 2,515p | 19.7 mln |
| Share count equivalent | 1.95% |
Action is the swing factor. It generated a 4.51 billion-pound gross investment return in the year to March, about 85% of 3i’s private-equity gross investment return of 5.30 billion pounds. In May, 3i said Action’s year-to-date like-for-like sales growth was 2.4% at week 19, down from a 6.8% comparable period last year.
The June 25 AGM update gave investors a better later read. 3i said Action’s year-to-date like-for-like sales growth was 3.3% at week 25, new store openings had reached 105, and Action had 699 million euros of cash after paying a 450 million-euro dividend to all shareholders in May.
| Action data point | May 10 / week 19 | June 21 / week 25 |
|---|---|---|
| Year-to-date like-for-like sales growth | 2.4% | 3.3% |
| New stores opened | 69 | 105 |
| Cash balance | €925 mln | €699 mln after €450 mln dividend |
Simon Borrows, 3i’s chief executive, said in May that “the market environment remains complex”, with geopolitical risk and inflation still in view. He also said Action’s growth rests on its store rollout and like-for-like growth. 3i
The freshest regulatory filing was not a sale by the chief executive. 3i said on July 1 that 211,095 shares were released to Borrows from post-vesting holding requirements linked to a 2021 performance share award, and that he transferred 10,000 shares as a nil-consideration gift to The Borrows Charitable Trust.
3i’s next scheduled market test is its Q1 performance update on July 23.
