IRELAND: Irish Collective Asset-Management Vehicle Bill passed

Tuesday February 24 2015

The Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle Bill has been passed both houses of Irish Parliament.

The Bill will create a new form of corporate vehicle for collective investment schemes, whose purpose is to minimise the administrative complexity and cost of establishing and maintaining collective investment schemes in Ireland.

The ICAV Bill 2014 was published in July 2014 and passed through the Oireachtas on 19 February 2015.

In Ireland, collective investment funds are currently structured as:

• Companies as UCITS under the Companies Acts, and as non-UCITS under Part XIII of the Companies Act 1990;
• Unit trusts under the Unit Trusts Act 1990;
• Investment limited partnerships under the Investment Limited Partnerships Act 1994; or
• Common contractual funds under the Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2005.

The new structure is similar to those already in place in many other EU jurisdictions including the Luxembourg and French “SICAV” and the UK Open Ended Investment Company (“OEIC”). It will be known as the Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle or “ICAV”.

The ICAV will be a corporate entity, with limited liability for investors, formed by two or more persons and with a registered office in the State.

An ICAV can only carry on business as an authorised collective investment scheme (either as an Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities – “UCITS” – or an Alternative Investment Fund – “AIF”). The ICAV will be able to take investments and redeem investments, resulting in a fluid capital structure.

Click on the above link for the bill.