In anticipation of the passing of legislation establishing the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) with a mandate to invest on a long-term commercial basis to support economic activity and employment in Ireland, the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF), within the constraints of its existing mandate, has committed to a number of investments dedicated to providing equity and debt capital to Irish SMEs. These investments include Better Capital Ireland Fund (total fund size €100 million, transaction signed Q1 2013), Carlyle Cardinal Ireland Fund (total fund size €300 million plus, transaction signed Q1 2013) and BlueBay Ireland Corporate Credit (total fund size €450 million, transaction signed Q3 2013) as well as a transaction entered into with Silicon Valley Bank (transaction signed Q2 2012) whereby SVB committed to lending $100 million to the Irish technology sector. Since the respective transactions were signed with NPRF, each manager has set up a Dublin office, recruited senior team members, integrated the Irish platform within their wider international business and begun to develop local market awareness of their platform and investment offering. These activities have positioned the managers as important new players in the Irish market and as alternative sources of funding to Irish businesses.
By its nature, establishment of a new business activity and capability takes some time. However the managers’ activities have generated significant dealflow to date. Across the four different managers over 200 investment opportunities have been reviewed and this has resulted to date in the funding of 6 transactions. A large number of potential transactions are at various stages of underwriting and the NTMA is pleased with the high quality and scale of dealflow generated by the managers. None of these funds has acquired any loans from or transacted with the domestic Irish Financial institutions.
The NTMA intends to publish a report each year regarding investments made by the ISIF, including an assessment of economic impact.
The NTMA is currently working on further commercial investment opportunities in the SME sector that will meet the strategic objectives and investment strategy of the ISIF.
