ISIF invested €396m across nine new projects in first half of year

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) invested €396 million across nine new investments in the first half of the year in sectors including aviation, high growth scaling companies, hospitality, life sciences and media, its interim progress report shows.

This brings total commitments to Ireland to €6 billion across 175 investments. It also has a strong investment pipeline as it looks to invest through the market and economic cycle.

The fund, which is managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), approved investments of €285 million in new climate-related projects as of the end of September. It is targeting investment worth €1 billion over five years.

“With an investment return of minus 5.8 per cent for the period, ISIF’s investment performance reflects a diversified portfolio, outperforming global equity indices but impacted by the current market difficulties,” it said.

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“Volatility in equity markets will likely affect potential realisations and distributions and ultimately portfolio returns through 2022.

“This performance has resulted in the investment gains generated in the second half of 2021 being reversed and the net asset value of the fund at end of the first half of 2022 being broadly in line with end the end of the first half of 2021.”

ISIF’s total investment return since inception in 2014 now stand at €2.1 billion, representing an annualised return of 3.4 per cent annually.

ISIF continued its track record of exiting from profitable investments during the period, including the sale of its shareholding in nonbank lender Finance Ireland, which delivered an investment gain of approximately 50 per cent on its investment of €45 million.

ISIF said its capital supported over 39,000 jobs and generated over €1.5 billion in gross value added to the Irish economy for 2021.

ISIF director Nick Ashmore said: “Despite market volatility in the first half, ISIF invested over €396 million in high-quality Irish businesses and projects and built up a strong pipeline for deploying additional capital in the second half and beyond.

“We are continuing to support the wider economy by deploying significant capital and attracting co-investment in innovative and exciting ways that match our double bottom line mandate of generating a commercial return and supporting economic activity and employment.

“We are pushing ahead with our €500 million investment programme in Ireland’s 5 regional cities with an encouraging pipeline.

“We’ve a lot more work to do and the current economic climate creates real uncertainty, but we remain committed to deploying capital effectively and successfully across our core themes.”