Fund vehicles for Traditional assets

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Ireland environmentFund vehicles for traditional assets

Introduction
Key figures
Useful links

UCITS

Introduction

A choice of vehicles tailor-made for sponsors’ needs and investors’ preferences

Open-ended Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferrable Securities (UCITS) can be set up as an Irish Collective Asset-Management Vehicle (ICAV), a Unit Trust or a Common Contractual Fund (CCF) appointing a UCITS management company or as a self-managed ICAV
UCITS can be structured as a single fund with multiple share classes, umbrella funds and master-feeder funds

Within a flexible and business-facilitating environment

Flexible use for equity funds, bond funds, mixed funds, multiple-asset class funds, money market funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
No minimum number of shareholders or unitholders
Irish UCITS can benefit from a product passport enabling them to be marketed to investors in the European Economic Area (EEA)
Foreign investors in Irish UCITS are not subject to tax in Ireland and Ireland has a tax treaty network spanning over 70 countries
Possibility to list shares or units on stock exchange

A leading regional sustainable finance framework

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure regulation (SFDR) and the European Taxonomy (Regulation 2020/852) requirements are applicable to Irish UCITS. UCITS must include certain sustainability related information in their precontractual documents, websites and periodic report. The extent of information to be disclosed depends on the fund’s classification under SFDR.

Key figures^₁

3^rd

largest investment fund centre in the world

3,196 billion (EUR)

in Q1 2022 (Irish fund assets))

67%

of the European ETF market

Fund managers from 54 countries

Useful links

Fund vehicles for traditional assets

UCITS – S.I. No. 352/2011 – European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) Regulations 2011. (irishstatutebook.ie)

UCITS vehicles can either be incorporated with a legal personality (investment companies, IVAC) or created contractually under a deed (trust or contractual fund without separate legal personality)
UCITS are subject to authorisation by the CBI. The minimum capital of a self-managed UCITS SICAV is EUR 300,000 when authorised by the CBI
A UCITS must appoint a management company (if not self-managed), an Irish depositary (Trustee), an Irish administrator and an auditor
At least two Irish directors, subject to the approval of the CBI and usually independent of each other must be appointed, as well as a Money Laundering Reporting Officer

UCITS may invest in transferable securities such as equities, bonds, money market instruments, investment funds and certain derivatives and in techniques and instruments related to transferable securities
A prospectus, the Key Investor Information Document (KIID), financial statements (at least audited annual and unaudited semi-annual) and periodic disclosures are mandatory
It can be marketed to all investors, benefitting from the European Union or the EEA passport, and has no minimum investment by a shareholder or unitholder
The NAV must be calculated at least twice a month

Market insight: Assets under management of Irish UCITS increased to more than EUR 3 trillion in 2022, at a growth rate significantly above the European average.