3i Group PLC (LSE:III) shares fell 7% after the private equity giant published its final results for the year to 31 March 2025.
The decline in the shares was likely have seen some profit-taking, as they hit all-time highs last week, up around 45% in the past 12 months.
The investment company hiked its total dividend to 73p per share from 61p a year ago, with a second dividend of 42.5p to be paid in July, subject to shareholder approval.
Total return was £5.05 billion, or 25% on opening shareholders' funds, while NAV per share rose to 2,542p at the end of March, from 2,085p a year ago.
3i's main investment, Dutch non-food discount chain Action, generated a return of £4.6 billion, or 32% on its opening value, with annual revenue growth of 22%, like-for-like sales growth of 10.3% and EBITDA growth of 29%.
In the first three months of 2025, Action has seen LFL sales growth slow to 6.2%, however.
Chief executive Simon Borrows called it "another successful year for 3i", hailing "strong shareholder returns against what remains a challenging macro-economic and geopolitical backdrop".
He said the result was underpinned by the "powerful compounding growth from our long-term hold assets" Action and another Dutch investment, personal care products manufacturer Royal Sanders, and by the performance of several other larger portfolio companies.
"This reinforces our conviction in allocating additional capital to our best performing assets. We remain confident in our ability to compound growth across the portfolio in the years to come," Borrows said.