By Business & Finance 
Conor O’Kelly, CEO, National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is currently evaluating over 100 investment proposals throughout Ireland as it continues to deploy its €7.4bn investment portfolio on a commercial basis.
The ISIF, which is controlled and managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), expects to commit between €500m and €1bn to additional investments in Ireland over the course of 2015, bringing its total Irish investment commitments to between €2bn and €2.5bn.
ISIF director Eugene O’Callaghan said: “The ISIF is building momentum, identifying commercial opportunities and investing in high-quality proposals. Our pipeline is strong and growing. We currently have almost €1.5bn deployed on a commercial basis in Ireland and this will grow to more than €7bn over the next three to five years as we make investments that meet our ‘double bottom line’ criteria – delivering a commercial investment return and supporting economic activity and employment in Ireland.”
O’Callaghan was speaking at the ISIF’s second market engagement event, which took place at Convention Centre Dublin and was attended by over 500 entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors.
The Minster for Finance, Michael Noonan TD, was the keynote speaker at the event. Other speakers included representatives of companies in which the ISIF has invested, such as Malin Corporation plc (which recently listed on the Irish Stock Exchange in one of Europe’s largest-ever biotech IPOs), confectionery manufacturer Lily O’Brien’s and software company Movidius.
Delegates also heard from the managing director of WestSummit Capital (co-manager of the ISIF’s $100m China-Ireland fund initiative), the chief executive of Enterprise Ireland and senior ISIF representatives.
O’Callaghan also said the ISIF has had initial engagement with around 300 potential investment opportunities and is looking forward to this level of quality and diversification being maintained and further developed.
“We are greatly encouraged by the quality of many of the proposals that we have seen over the past year,” he said. “The ISIF is now firmly up and running and we want prospective partners to share their plans with us to enable us to deliver a positive economic impact and achieve our investment objectives.”
