Four global firms have been appointed by the National Treasury Management Agency as asset managers for two sovereign wealth funds.
Following a public procurement process, French firm Amundi, US companies Blackrock and State Street and Swiss investment bank UBS were chosen to provide investment management services for the Future Ireland Fund (FIF) and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF).
It follows the publication last month of the long-term investment strategies for the two funds.
The FIF serves as a long-term investment fund with the aim to "help deal with future expenditure pressures from 2041".
The ICNF is described as "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".
To date, the Future Ireland Fund has received Exchequer contributions of approximately €13.6 billion, while the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund has received approximately €4.5b billion.
The NTMA said the firms have been selected to provide passive investment management services, which means they will track major market indices in line with each fund's benchmark.
The agency said it 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 Director of the Future Ireland Funds unit in the NTMA 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".
Rebekah Brady the asset 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," she added.
The NTMA said it has commenced transitioning both funds from the interim investment strategies to their new long-term investment strategies, which will be implemented on a phased basis over time.
Initially the FIF will be invested 80% in equities and 20% in bonds, with additional diversification over time. The ICNF will be 100% weighted towards bonds before also later diversifying.
The agency said 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".
