State investment fund acquires 15% stake in Malin for €50m

The State-owned Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has invested €50 million in Malin, the biotech investment vehicle set up by ex-Elan executives.

The investment, the first by the fund since it was established late last year, gives it a 15 per cent stake, making it the second-largest shareholder behind UK investment guru Neil Woodford.

Dún Laoghaire-based Malin raised an estimated €330 million in its recent oversubscribed IPO, which it plans to invest in privately held life science assets over the next five years.

The ISIF, which is managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, is mandated to invest its assets, valued at €7.2 billion, on a commercial basis to support economic activity.

Life sciences

hub Malin

has committed to investing €150 million in Irish life sciences companies, or life sciences companies with significant operations in Ireland.

This means investing in at least 10 such Irish life sciences companies that will employ at least 200 people in Ireland on a full-time basis over the next five years.

The fund said the investment in Malin can build on Ireland’s reputation as a life sciences’ hub as well as create large numbers of high-end jobs and investment.

“The investment and employment commitments agreed with Malin are expected to create significant economic activity and employment opportunities for highly skilled professionals in the medtech and pharma sectors, as well as generating considerable indirect benefits,” it said in a statement.

ISIF director Eugene O’Callaghan said the €50 million investment was consistent with the fund’s “double bottom line” mandate to seek both a commercial investment return and a significant economic impact from the investments it makes.

The ISIF has made €1.5 billion worth of investment commitments to date, albeit under the banner of its former incarnation as the National Pensions Reserve Fund, and it plans to deploy the remainder of the €7.2 billion fund over the coming years.

The fund is the anchor tenant in the Carlyle Cardinal Ireland fund which is backing a management buyout of Tullamore-based Carroll Cuisine from Swiss-Irish food giant Aryzta, and has acquired Payzone Ireland.

Debt financing for the recent buyout of Denis O’Brien’s coffee and muffin chain, BBs, was provided by BlueBay Ireland, which was also established with cash from the ISIF.