Monday 3 October 2022
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), has today published its half-yearly progress update for H1 2022.
The main points of the update include:
Climate action: ISIF has made a strong start in its €1bn 5-year climate action investment programme announced last September, with approved new climate-related investments reaching €285m (at end September 2022).
Investing to support the Irish economy: ISIF invested €396m across 9 new investments in H1, in sectors including aviation, high growth scaling companies, hospitality, life sciences and media. This brings total commitments to Ireland to €6bn across 175 investments. It also has a strong investment pipeline as it looks to invest through the market and economic cycle.
Investment return: With an investment return of minus 5.8% for H1 2022, ISIF’s investment performance reflects a diversified portfolio, outperforming global equity indices but impacted by the current market difficulties. 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 H2 2021 being reversed and the net asset value of the Fund at end H1 2022 being broadly in line with end H1 2021. ISIF’s total investment return since inception in 2014 now stand at €2.1bn, representing an annualised return of 3.4% per annum.
Continued exits from profitable investments: ISIF continued its track record of exiting from profitable investments during H1, including the sale of its shareholding in non-bank lender Finance Ireland, which delivered an investment gain of approximately 50% on its investment of €45m.
Catalysing third party co-investment: ISIF has now acted as a catalyst for €9.5bn of commitments by third party co-investment partners – a multiple of 1.6x the amount invested by ISIF. This co-investment multiple of €1.6m private sector co-investment for every €1m committed by ISIF has enabled the investment of over €15bn since inception.
Economic Impact: ISIF capital supported over 39,000 jobs and generated over €1.5bn in Gross Value Added to the Irish economy for FY 2021.
Nick Ashmore, the Director of ISIF, said:
“Despite market volatility in H1, ISIF invested over €396m in high-quality Irish businesses and projects and built up a strong pipeline for deploying additional capital in H2 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’ve made good progress in our €1bn programme of targeting climate action investments, approving €285m already.
We are pushing ahead with our €500m 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: Climate; Housing and enabling infrastructure; Scaling Businesses; and Food and Agriculture.”
A full list of ISIF investments in H1 2022 follows below.
Solas Capital
€20m commitment to a fund focusing on energy efficiency in commercial buildings and homes.
Emerald Airlines
€6m investment to support connectivity between Ireland and the UK and between regional Irish airports and Dublin.
Claret Capital Partners
€15m commitment to a venture debt fund that provides debt to high growth scaling tech and life sciences businesses.
Aer Lingus
€200m debt facility to support connectivity and recovery.
Greystones Media Campus
€24m follow-on investment to part finance the development of a film studio campus in Greystones.
Hotel Investment Fund
€50m commitment to a fund to address liquidity and investment capital requirements due to Covid-19 across Irish hotel sector.
Andera Partners
€20m investment to a venture capital fund investing in early-stage life science companies looking to scale and grow.
AMCS
€52m follow-on investment to an existing investee to support Company's strategic acquisition.
Beach Point Capital
€10m follow-on commitment to fund that provides debt to high growth Irish SMEs.
