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| Last month, Dublin investment firm Claret Capital purchased Washington D.C. St. Regis Hotel for $170m on behalf of "ultra high net worth individuals and families." Irish venture capital investment in 2007 will amount to about 200m. |
Some of Thursday's headlines from Wednesday night's annual dinner of the Irish Venture Capital Association were certainly flattering. It seemed that a new dawn was on the horizon with a jump in annual Irish venture capital investment to 1.4bn coinciding with the forging of a world class knowledge economy, would at least snap at the heels of the surging overseas commercial property investment sector.
The figure of 1.4bn is for a five year period and overseas commercial property will remain as the investment of choice.
In the period 2001-2006, more than 40bn was invested by the Irish in commercial property compared with about 1bn going to venture capital investment.
Venture capital investment in Irish companies in 2006 amounted to more than 192m - 2.4% of the Irish investment in overseas commercial property.