Ireland Strategic Investment Fund tenders responsible investment services

Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), that manages the government’s assets and liabilities, is tendering for a range of responsible investment services for the €8bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).

ISIF – formerly the National Pensions Reserve Fund – is described as a sovereign development fund, with a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial basis to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. The NTMA manages the fund’s €8bn discretionary portfolio. Ireland’s finance minister makes directed investments in Ireland’s banking sector valued at €13.3bn.

The NTMA is tendering for proxy voting services, shareholder engagement services, portfolio analytics and what it describes as an “ESG framework” for the discretionary portion of ISIF’s portfolio. Contracts are for five years.The portfolio has 38% fixed income and 12% in quoted equities, alternative assets make up 25% of the portfolio.

ISIF’s biggest commitments are in the water, real estate and venture funds sectors.

ISIF is a PRI signatory and a signatory to the CDP. Its website says it is currently invested in Generation Investment Management’s global equity fund. The fund also currently uses Hermes Equity Ownership Services for engagement and voting. The fund excludes cluster munitions as direction by Irish law.

ISIF has been making a series of domestic investments recently. Earlier this month it was among a consortium of investors that put €36m into Irish life-sciences startup, Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI). And it also announced the first two investments from its “Connectivity Fund” using proceeds from the sale of Ireland’s shareholding in Aer Lingus.