3i drama mounts as Sherborne ups stake The drama at 3i moved up a gear today, with activist investor Edward Bramson revealing he had raised his holding in the listed private equity group and confirming for the first time the buyout firm was his target for a potential turnaround. Mr Bramson's Sherborne Investors vehicle had a 4.2pc stake in the FTSE 250 group at the end of February, the company revealed. It is understood that there has been no contact between Sherborne and 3i, but today's announcement prompted 3i chief executive Simon Borrows, who has recently built up his own stake in the business, to defend his progress in reviving the group's fortunes. "Since the announcement of 3i's future strategy in June last year, we have wasted no time in implementing the significant organisational and cultural changes that were needed," Mr Borrows said. As a result, we have made strong and measurable progress against the immediate priorities and targets that we set out in June. Shares in 3i dipped 3.9 to 316½p. Overall, the FTSE 100 started the new month as it finished the last. Despite losing ground in the morning in the wake of weak Chinese manufacturing figures, the blue-chips rallied to close up 17.79 points to 6,378.60 on the back of better than expected US factory and consumer sentiment data. It was the index's third consecutive day of gains, bringing the week's rise to 0.7pc. Capita rebounded from Thursday's results-induced losses and climbed 35 to 858½p. The group also announced it was buying debt collection business iQor for an enterprise value of £42m. On the FTSE 250 - 46.53 better at 13,750.55 - traders chased Hikma Pharmaceuticals 70½ higher to 936½p after the drug-maker said it had received unsolicited expressions of interest for its injectables business, and was now renewing its options for the division. Analysts at Jefferies reckoned the unit could be valued at between $1.9bn (£1.3bn) and $2.2bn. Lower down the scale, North Sea oil explorer Valiant Petroleum leapt 109 to 455½p on news Ithaca Energy had agreed to buy the company for about £203m in cash and shares.