EUROPE - 3i sells venture portfolio to Coller-, HarbourVest-backed Encore

The move is designed to both re-focus 3i firmly on buyouts and growth capital and help reduce the firm's debt pile. This has already been reduced drastically from around £2bn earlier this year to £961m on the back of a £732m rights issue in May, as well as the sale of 3i QPE, both under the stewardship of CEO Michael Queen.

The deal sees Coller and HarbourVest pump money into DFJ Esprit to create a synthetic secondaries vehicle, Encore Ventures, from which the investment was made. The fund, Encore Ventures I, will reach a maximum size of $280m (£170m), with Coller and HarbourVest the sole investors.

Encore's newly acquired portfolio includes soft modem business Icera Semiconductors, laser projector systems developer Light Blue Optics, orthobiologics specialist ApaTech, wireless broadband business The Cloud, and hotel bookings company CamSemi. Encore intends to provide follow-on capital to continue to grow these companies over the next few years.

3i's venture assets, which at the end of March stood at 123 valued at £314m, have attracted a lot of attention. Much of the German portfolio was sold to Cipio Partners in April this year, which the other European assets just now acquired had lured the likes of Amadeus.

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