Update: 3i Infrastructure (3IN) has sold its 71% stake in TCR, the airport ground support equipment provider, for €1.14bn (£1bn), 22% more than the 30 September valuation and 50% more than at 31 March last year when its biggest position was put up for sale.

News that the company will repay the €626m drawn on its £900m credit facility and have over €514m to invest in its pipeline of opportunities reassured shareholders after the shock write-down of its £212m investment in German telecom provider DNSNet last month. The buyer was not disclosed.

Shares in 3IN gained 2% to 355p but remain below the 373p before the DNSNet announcement. Despite standing on a 14.5% discount to net asset value the £3.2bn investment company is the best performing listed infrastructure fund over five years with a total shareholder return of 40.9%. It yields 3.9%.

Fund manager Bernardo Sottomayor, head of European infrastructure at 3i Investments (III), said TCR had achieved “exceptional growth” during 3IN’s ownership since 2016, despite the disruption from the 2020 Covid pandemic. He thanked its executive chair Tom Bellekens and CEO James Watson for their commitment.

“We add another successful realisation to our track record, highlighting the strength of our investment strategy. The robust premium achieved over the pre-sale valuation demonstrates the latent value potential in our portfolio,” Sottomayor said. 

3IN has already invested €131m in three bolt-on acquisitions this year for portfolio companies ESVAGT, a Danish operator of service vessels for offshore wind farms, and Joulz, a Dutch energy infrastructure equipment provider. 

James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, said: “The sale of TCR was well flagged, but the price that 3i Infrastructure has achieved comes as a pleasant surprise, adding €205m to the NAV or 19.4p per share (about 4.8%). The discount has been a bit wider than usual since 3IN announced the write down of DNSNet. However, the uplift that 3IN has achieved on this exit over the last valuation might suggest that its valuations are generally conservative.”