Treasury Group is registering a Dublin-domiciled investment company, and will offer a tax-free version of the Treasury Asia Asset Management (TAAM) Asian equity fund to European investors by the first quarter of next year.

The business case for a Dublin fund will be presented to all of Treasury Group’s part-owned managers, according to chief financial officer, Joe Ferragina, with potential followers in TAAM’s footsteps including global listed infrastructure manager Rare, and global equities shop Global Value Investors. The upfront cost of establishing the company, to be known as TG Investment Funds Plc, would be about $200,000, Ferragina estimated, before the ongoing costs of audits, and fees for the mandatory two Irish directors of the company. The costs of adding sub-funds thereafter would be small and containable within the the funds’ MERS, he said, adding that Treasury Group would come to an arrangement with each manager to split the costs of the Dublin domicile. Ferragina said the inspiration to look at Dublin funds followed a visit to Europe last year by TAAM chief investment officer Peter Sartori, and Treasury Group managing director David Cooper. “Peter has a big following over there anyway, and Asian equities is much better understood as an asset class [in UK/Europe], but the requests for an accessible fund came on behalf of managers right across our range,” Ferragina said. There was even demand for Dublin funds from Treasury Group’s Australian equity managers, Investors Mutual and Orion Asset Management, he said.