The 3i Infrastructure Board is announcing the payment of an interim dividend of 4.6 pence per share, scheduled to be paid on 13 January 2020 to holders of ordinary shares on the register on 29 November 2019. The ex-dividend date will be 28 November 2019. As an investment trust, the Company is permitted to designate dividends wholly or partly as interest distributions for UK tax purposes. The Board is designating 3.4 pence of the 4.6 pence interim dividend as an interest distribution. More details relating to this can be found in the Information for shareholders section.
Other financial highlights include:
The Company generated a total return of 5.8% on opening NAV for the first half of the year, ahead of its target return of 8% to 10% per annum to be achieved over the medium term. The NAV per share increased to 243.6 pence. The portfolio is performing in line with expectations, both financially and operationally, with our Investment Manager driving value growth over the period through active asset management of the portfolio. We are very pleased to have completed the acquisition of Ionisos, further improving the diversification of the portfolio.
The Company delivered a Total Shareholder Return ('TSR') of 8.9% in the period (FTSE 250: 6.3%). Since IPO, the Company's annualised TSR was 13.6%, comparing favourably with the broader market (FTSE 250: 7.6% annualised over the same period). The Company has achieved this outperformance with a low correlation to the broader equity market.
