The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), as controller and manager of the Future Ireland Funds, has today announced the selection of four major global firms with specialist expertise to provide investment management services to both funds.
The selection of the firms follows the publication last month of the long-term investment strategies for both funds:
- The Future Ireland Fund (FIF), which serves as a long-term investment fund that will help deal with future expenditure pressures from 2041; and
- The Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF), a countercyclical fund available to support State expenditure in the event of future economic shocks, as well as expenditure from 2026 to 2030 on designated environmental projects.
The FIF, the larger and long-term fund, has received Exchequer contributions of approximately €13.6bn to date, while the ICNF has received approximately €4.5bn.
Firms selected
Following a public procurement process, the four firms selected to provide investment management services are:
- Amundi
- Blackrock
- State Street
- UBS
The firms have been selected to provide passive investment management services – i.e. they will track major market indices in line with each fund’s benchmark.
The NTMA has selected multiple firms to achieve an appropriate level of diversification and to facilitate ongoing measurement and benchmarking of the investment performance by each firm.
The NTMA has commenced transitioning both funds from the interim investment strategies to their new long-term investment strategies.
Investment in line with the long-term strategies is being implemented on a phased basis over time, in order to manage the risk to public funds from potential short-term market volatility during the transition phase.
It is expected that further public procurement processes will be conducted by the NTMA in due course, to select investment managers for other asset classes and investment mandates as required. Over time the Future Ireland Fund will pursue additional diversification in line with its 2041 investment horizon and its investment strategy.
Rebekah Brady, Director of the NTMA’s Future Ireland Funds unit, said:
“The selection of investment managers is an important step to facilitate the implementation of the long-term investment strategies for the Future Ireland Funds, which were announced last month.
These managers will work on behalf of the Future Ireland Funds to deliver our investment exposure as both funds gradually move into markets.
This is an important mechanism for ensuring the funds are invested in a prudent and effective manner to deliver on their legislative mandates.”
