3i Infrastructure plc – Annual report – 31 March 2021
Industry: investments
Significant accounting policies (extract 1)
Key judgements (extract)
The preparation of financial statements in accordance with IFRS requires the Directors to exercise judgement in the process of applying the accounting policies defined below. The following policies are areas where a higher degree of judgement has been applied in the preparation of the Financial statements.
(i) Assessment as investment entity – Entities that meet the definition of an investment entity within IFRS 10 are required to measure their subsidiaries at fair value through profit or loss rather than consolidate them unless they provided investment-related services to the Company. To determine that the Company continues to meet the definition of an investment entity, the Company is required to satisfy the following three criteria:
(a) the Company obtains funds from one or more investors for the purpose of providing those investor(s) with investment management services;
(b) the Company commits to its investor(s) that its business purpose is to invest funds solely for returns from capital appreciation, investment income, or both; and
(c) the Company measures and evaluates the performance of substantially all of its investments on a fair value basis.
The Company meets the criteria as follows:
- the stated strategy of the Company is to deliver stable returns to shareholders through a mix of income yield and capital appreciation;
- the Company provides investment management services and has several investors who pool their funds to gain access to infrastructure related investment opportunities that they might not have had access to individually; and
- the Company has elected to measure and evaluate the performance of all of its investments on a fair value basis. The fair value method is used to represent the Company’s performance in its communication to the market, including investor presentations. In addition, the Company reports fair value information internally to Directors, who use fair value as the primary measurement attribute to evaluate performance.
The Directors are of the opinion that the Company has all the typical characteristics of an investment entity and continues to meet the definition in the standard. This conclusion will be reassessed on an annual basis.
(ii) Assessment of investments as structured entities – A structured entity is an entity that has been designed so that voting or similar rights are not the dominant factor in deciding who controls the entity. Additional disclosures are required by IFRS 12 for interests in structured entities, whether they are consolidated or not. The Directors have assessed whether the entities in which the Company invests should be classified as structured entities and have concluded that none of the entities should be classified as structured entities as voting rights are the dominant factor in deciding who controls these entities.
(iii) Assessment of consolidation requirements – The Company holds significant stakes in the majority of its investee companies and must exercise judgement in the level of control of the underlying investee company that is obtained in order to assess whether the Company should be classified as a subsidiary.
The Company must also exercise judgement in whether a subsidiary provides investment-related services or activities and therefore should be consolidated or held at fair value through profit or loss. Further details are shown in significant accounting policy ‘A Classification’ on page 128.
During the year, the Company set up seven wholly owned subsidiary entities for potential new investments, including DNS:NET, and invested in a joint venture entity to acquire further stakes in the A9 and A27/A1 PPP projects. The Directors have assessed whether any of these entities provide investment-related services and have concluded that they should not be consolidated and that they should all be held at fair value through profit or loss.
Significant accounting policies (extract 2)
A Classification
(i) Subsidiaries – Subsidiaries are entities controlled by the Company. Control exists when the Company is exposed, or has rights, to variable returns from its involvement with the subsidiary entity and has the ability to affect those returns through its power over the subsidiary entity. In accordance with the exception under IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company only consolidates subsidiaries in the Financial statements if they are deemed to perform investment-related services and do not meet the definition of an investment entity. Investments in subsidiaries that do not meet this definition are accounted for as Investments at fair value through profit or loss with changes in fair value recognised in the Statement of comprehensive income in the year. The Directors have assessed all entities within the structure and concluded that 3i Infrastructure Seed Assets GP Limited was the only subsidiary of the Company that provides investment-related services or activities. In prior years this subsidiary was consolidated with the Company to form ‘the Group’. 3i Infrastructure Seed Assets GP Limited was dissolved during the financial year to 31 March 2020.
(ii) Associates – Associates are those entities in which the Company has significant influence, but not control, over the financial and operating policies. Investments that are held as part of the Company’s investment portfolio are carried in the Balance sheet at fair value even though the Company may have significant influence over those entities.
(iii) Joint ventures – Interests in joint ventures that are held as part of the Company’s investment portfolio are carried in the Balance sheet at fair value. This treatment is permitted by IFRS 11 and IAS 28, which allows interests held by venture capital organisations where those investments are designated, upon initial recognition, as at fair value through profit or loss and accounted for in accordance with IFRS 9 with changes in fair value recognised in the Statement of comprehensive income in the year.
Accounts examples 