The RBS Group pension fund has allocated an initial £750m to the Australian firm Hastings Funds Management to manage and develop private market infrastructure assets.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the funds will be used for infrastructure investment in the UK and selected OECD countries which "provide reliable cash flows and a strong link to inflation".

Hastings said that as an equity and debt infrastructure specialist, the firm would be in a good position to develop investment solutions for fund.

To the WSJ, Andrew Day, CEO at Hastings said: "Our focus is to invest the funds across debt and equity and hopefully target similar returns to our Utilities Trust of Australia which returns are 12% per annum." He added that a range of factors are driving opportunities in Europe, including changing capital requirements or particular sovereign risk issues in select countries.

At the end of 2011, the RBS pension scheme held around £23bn in assets. According to Pension Funds Online, the scheme, which has 224,000 members, invests heaviest in corporate bonds, index-linked bonds and listed global equities.

Hastings Funds Management, at the end of May 2012, had US $7bn in assets under management. These funds were all invested in assets such as utility firms, airports, toll roads and harbours.

First published 17.07.2012

azeevalkink@wilmington.co.uk