Investment funds managed from Dublin's International Financial Services Centre grew by more than 20 per cent in the year to the end of last June, and total assets managed from the IFSC now exceed $345 billion, according to the latest Dublin Fund Encyclopaedia from Fitzrovia International.
The number of individual funds managed from the IFSC has also risen by 20 per cent to 1,671 funds.
The largest funds company operating from the IFSC is American investment bank Goldman Sachs which has $17.2 billion under management in 18 funds, a near 50 per cent increase from the €12 billion under management at the end of June 2000. Goldman Sachs is one of the fastest growing funds operations in the IFSC and five years ago had only $500 under management.
Barclays has $16.7 billion in funds managed from its IFSC operation and is followed by Deutsche Asset Management with $15.9 billion. The other fund managers in the top 10 list are Frank Russell, DGZ-DekwaBank, Merrill Lynch, Mediolanum, Societe Generale/Russell Asset Management, Coutts and JP Morgan Fleming.
The biggest single fund launched from the IFSC in the year to the end of June is Standard Life's $1.6 billion Global Liquidity Fund. The biggest growth overall came in cash funds which grew from $49.2 billion to $73.2 billion. Bond funds increased by 22 per cent although assets in equity funds were almost unchanged, despite the number of funds increasing by 23 per cent.
Fitzrovia chief executive Mr Paul Moulton said: "Dublin has shown remarkable growth once again, particularly in the face of adverse market conditions."
An indication of how valuable IFSC funds are for Irish professional advisers is made clear in the Fitzrovia report. Among the accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers retained its dominant position and audited 195 new funds in the year to bring its total of fund audits to 1,100. KPMG audits 645 funds followed by Ernst & Young with 389, Arthur Andersen with 154 and Deloitte & Touche with 113.
On the stockbroking side, Davy has 717 funds, NCB has 344 and Goodbody has 118.
Dillon Eustace is the biggest funds lawyer with 589 funds, followed by A&L Goodbody with 329, Arthur Cox with 274, Matheson Ormsby Prentice with 215 and William Fry with 210.
Dublin Fund Encyclopaedia, Fitzrovia International plc: £1,249 sterling (with CD-Rom)
