The allocation referred to by the Minister in his announcement of 15 May 2014 relates to investment commitments previously announced by the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) Commission in 2013.
In January 2013 the NPRF Commission announced investment commitments to three new long-term funds that will provide €850 million of equity, credit and restructuring/recovery investment for Irish SMEs and mid-sized corporates. The NPRF played a significant role in the development of the funds and was a cornerstone investor in each alongside additional investment from third-party investors. The NPRF has committed €375 million across the three funds:
- a €300m equity fund which is focussing on healthy businesses seeking to grow, including those with overleveraged balance sheets, managed by Carlyle Cardinal Ireland.
- a €100m turnaround fund focussing on underperforming businesses which are at or close to the point of insolvency but have the potential for financial and operational restructuring, managed by Better Capital.
- a €450m credit fund focussing on originating and acquiring loans to larger SMEs and mid-size companies, managed by BlueBay Asset Management.
- For each of the SME funds, investment selection is carried out independently by the respective manager. The NPRF is happy to direct queries from businesses seeking finance to the relevant manager. Requests of this kind should be sent to smefunds@nprf.ie . Alternatively, contact detail for each of the SMEs is set out as follows:
- Nick Corcoran, Carlyle Cardinal Ireland
- Ph: 353 (0)1 631 9730
- David Cullen, Better Capital Ireland
- +353 (0)1 661 8430
- Pat Walsh, BlueBay Ireland Corporate Credit
- Ph: 353 (0)1 6694782
