THE possibility of investment in State companies such as CIE by pension funds will be considered in a study commissioned jointly by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, and the investment industry.
The study, announced yesterday, will identify investment opportunities in Ireland for Irish pension funds and is being jointly sponsored by the Irish Association of Pension Funds, the Irish Association of Investment Managers and the Department of Finance.
In addition to investment in State companies, the study will look at the possibility of pension funds investing in infrastructural projects, the subsidiaries of multinationals and the flotation of private companies.
Management consultants Deloitte and Touche will carry out the study with the assistance of Dr Peter Bacon, the economic consultant and former managing director of Goodbody stockbrokers. The study will take up to three months to complete.
The consultants have "been specifically requested to come up with practical proposals which meet sound commercial and economic objectives and which can be considered by the three sponsors of the project for implementation within a reasonable time frame", according to the Department of Finance.
Irish pension funds have been put under pressure by successive Ministers for Finance to invest more money in non quoted Irish companies.
Following a similar report to the one announced yesterday, the pension funds committed themselves to investing £50 million over five years in venture capital funds. This, in turn, led to the reorganisation of the existing venture funds and the establishment of a number of new ones.
