IRELAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Nicholas Blake-Knox, Jonathan Sheehan, Damien Barnaville and Joe Mitchell, Walkers
1. Market Overview 1.1 State of the Market
under the same umbrella, meaning an ELTIF sub-fund can be authorised on a QIAIF or RIAIF umbrella alongside a QIAIF or RIAIF sub-fund. As RIAIFs and Retail Investor ELTIFs are estab - lished and regulated as AIFs, they are included in this section ( 2. Alternative Investment Funds ). Five legal structures are currently available when establishing a regulated AIF in Ireland: • investment company; • Irish collective asset-management vehicle (ICAV); • unit trust; • common contractual fund (CCF); and • investment limited partnership (ILP). Separately, the 1907 LP is a long-standing Irish partnership structure vehicle established pursu - ant to the Limited Partnerships Act, 1907. The 1907 LP is not authorised by the Central Bank nor regulated by the Central Bank’s AIF Rule - book and accordingly is outside the scope of this chapter. Investment Company Historically, the investment company was the vehicle of choice for investors looking for an Irish corporate fund vehicle. However, this changed in 2015 with the introduction of the ICAV as a bespoke corporate structure that caters specifi - cally for the needs of the funds industry. ICAV The key advantages of the ICAV versus the investment company include: • the ability to elect to dispense with the hold - ing of an annual general meeting; • the ability to file a “check the box” election to be treated as a partnership (or a disregarded
The latest statistics published by the Central Bank of Ireland (Central Bank) show that the net asset value (NAV) of Irish-domiciled funds increased for the eighth successive quarter, driven by positive revaluations and transac - tion inflows, to EUR4.676 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2024, representing a 21% increase (EUR822 billion) from EUR3.854 tril - lion at the end of Q3 2023. The number of Irish- domiciled funds (including sub-funds) grew from 8,870 at the end of 2023 to 8,993 at the end of August 2024. In terms of the number of Irish-domiciled funds by category, Irish-domiciled alternative invest - ment funds (AIFs) (including sub-funds) reached 3,434 at the end of August 2024, and the total number of Irish-domiciled undertakings for col - lective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) (including sub-funds) reached 5,559. 2. Alternative Investment Funds 2.1 Fund Formation 2.1.1 Fund Structures AIFs that are domiciled in Ireland are predomi - nantly established as regulated funds and are required to be authorised by the Central Bank. Regulated AIFs in Ireland are sub-divided into retail investor alternative investment funds (RIAIFs), qualifying investor alternative invest - ment funds (QIAIFs) and European long-term investment funds (ELTIFs), with the vast majority of Ireland-domiciled AIFs being established as QIAIFs. The ELTIF can be authorised in Ireland as a standalone product and does not need to be established as a QIAIF or a RIAIF. It is also possible to have ELTIF and non-ELTIF sub-funds
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