3i Group plc is a British multinational

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

and

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

company based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. 3i is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

History

The company was formed in 1945, as the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC), by the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

and the major British banks to provide long-term investment funding for small and medium-sized enterprises. Its foundation was inspired by the

Macmillan Committee The Macmillan Committee, officially known as the Committee on Finance and Industry, was a committee, composed mostly of economists, formed by the British Labour government after the 1929 stock market crash to determine the root causes of the depr ...

, and resulted from the recognition in the 1930s, given new impetus in the postwar era, that smaller businesses faced a gap in available corporate finance due to banks being unwilling to provide long-term capital and the companies being too small to raise capital from the public markets. During the 1950s and 1960s, and particularly after 1959 when the shareholder banks allowed it to raise external funds, ICFC expanded significantly. In 1973 ICFC acquired Finance Corporation for Industry, a sister company also formed in 1945 which focused on finance for large companies, and was renamed Finance for Industry (FFI). In the 1980s, FFI became a leading provider of finance for

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

s, and expanded internationally. In 1983 the company was renamed Investors in Industry, commonly known as 3i. 3i Group was created in 1987 when the banks sold off their stakes to form a public limited company. In 1994 the company was floated on the

with a market capitalisation of £1.5

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

Operations

3i invests in mid-market buyouts, growth capital (minority) and infrastructure. Sectors invested in are business and

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

, consumer, industrials and energy, and healthcare.

Current investments

Former investments

References

External links

*
Yahoo profile
{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1945 British companies established in 1945 Financial services companies of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Financial services companies based in London Private equity firms of the United Kingdom Venture capital firms of the United Kingdom Companies in the FTSE 100 Index