3i Italy is a pioneer in the Italian private equity industry. We started our activity in Italy in 1991 and since then we have provided capital to more than 50 businesses and successfully taken five of our investee companies to IPO (Mirato, Datamat, Novuspharma, Biosearch and Newron).

We currently manage a portfolio of over 10 investments in various industry sectors. Among our most recent investments: Targetti and Global Garden Products.

We have a successful track record of investing in Italian family-owned businesses, supporting management in issues of succession, restructuring the shareholder base and achieving profitable growth (Mirato, Faber, Farmigea, Onama, Comac).

2007 was another record year for Italian Private Equity with a total amount invested of about €4.2 billion in 302 deals. With a 12.5% growth compared to 2006, the total amount invested by private equity and venture capital players in 2007 hit the highest value ever reached on the national market. Buyouts continued to dominate the market, in particular large buyouts which represent over 50% of the total amount invested  (+59% compared to 2006). - Source AIFI – These results show that the market for private equity in Italy is very healthy indeed.

3i Group plc operates in Italy through 3i SGR SpA, authorised and regulated by the Bank of Italy and Consob.  3i SGR was incorporated in August 2002.