3i, a British private equity investor, said Thursday that investment opportunities were starting to pick up. "We have started to see a pick up in interesting investment opportunities across our private equity platform, particularly in the United States and more recently in Northern Europe," according to a statement of Simon Borrows, Chief Executive of 3i.

The private equity firm has made no new investments in the first quarter of its fiscal year. However, 3i has signaled that the outlook for overseas deals was improving. There was an increase of 5% in 3i's net asset value in the previous three months, which was now at 326 pence.

In addition, the company's gross debt figures met its target by June. Its end-of-quarter gross debt was GBP913 million, hitting the below GBP1 billion target.

Last year, the PE firm was busy with restructuring. This was after shareholders expressed their frustration with the poor performance of the company's share price and its buyout business' weak results.