DUBLIN: Bank of Ireland Private Banking has launched a new multimillion-euro fund for its high-net-worth clients in partnership with international investment group KKR. Called the Diversified Private Markets Fund, it will seek to raise close to €100 million and will be two-thirds invested in private-equity assets, with the balance being private credit and real estate. All of the money will be invested in assets outside Ireland with the bank targeting annual returns of 9-11 per cent. It will be a Dublin-based qualifying investor fund and is open to existing and new high-net-worth clients of Bank of Ireland Private Banking, who typically have €1 million in investible liquid assets. It is expected to be a 10-year investment. In parallel with this, the Bank of Ireland unit will shortly begin distributions to clients from a commercial property investment in South Korea dating back to 2006.
More than €140 million is expected to be distributed to a small number of clients who invested in IFC Seoul, an international financial centre involving three high-rise, glazed buildings, a retail mall and a Conrad hotel. Reports in 2006 suggested Bank of Ireland’s clients had invested €50 million in what was then a greenfield development. The bank would not confirm any of the financial details of the transactions other than stating that it had delivered a return of about 2½ times for its clients over the period. IFC Seoul was an investment managed by AIG Global Real Estate, with the Bank of Ireland clients part of a much wider pool of investors in the complex. It was sold by AIG to Brookfield in November for an undisclosed sum.
