3i to stop investing in start-up companies -FT

LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - British private equity firm 3i Group Plc (III.L) is abandoning early-stage investment in start-up companies to focus on buy-outs, growth capital and infrastructure, The Financial Times newspaper reported.

3i's venture capital business has shrunk steadily since suffering about 1 billion pounds ($1.98 billion) of write-downs from the technology crash of 2000, the FT said on Monday.

"Early stage has not been an easy place ... there is more value for us in later-stage companies internationally and that is what we have been doing more and more," 3i Chief Executive Philip Yea told the FT. (Reporting by Dan Lalor; editing by Sue Thomas)