Australian infrastructure manager IFM Investors is preparing to launch its first global value-add infrastructure fund, targeting between USD 2bn and USD 3bn, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Melbourne-based investment manager has registered a GP vehicle for the IFM Global Value Add Infrastructure Fund in Luxembourg, regulatory filings show.

The vehicle is set to target a global portfolio and aims to deliver net returns of 12% to 16%, according to the sources.

Giovanni Stroeckx, an Amsterdam-based investment director at IFM, has been appointed among the managers of the fund’s GP vehicle, the filings show.

The exact timeline for the fund’s launch is not clear.

IFM did not respond to a request for comment.

IFM, which is owned by a consortium of Australian pension funds, is best known for its open-ended USD 60bn Global Infrastructure Fund, which launched in 2004 and focuses on core, brownfield assets in North America, Europe and Australia.

However, the firm has been mulling raising a dedicated fund to target higher-returning infrastructure assets since at least 2017.

Infralogic reported in 2019 that the firm had held talks with investors to raise a possible global core-plus infrastructure fund with a 10-year term and a target size of up to USD 2bn, but the strategy was ultimately shelved before formal marketing began.

IFM itself highlighted LPs’ shifting preferences for infrastructure strategies that deliver higher returns in a research paper published last November, which surveyed 700 of the largest global institutional investors. The firm said 45% of investors surveyed invest in value-add, compared to 36% focusing core and core-plus assets.

“Long-term infrastructure investors are increasingly moving up the risk curve, seeking to capitalise on the illiquidity premium of assets,” said IFM in the report.

The new attempt comes as IFM recently stepped up efforts to add further specialised infrastructure strategies.

In 2022 it launched a new open-ended fund focused on energy transition, called IFM Net Zero Infrastructure, while more recently it launched a new infrastructure debt fund targeting USD 1bn, with a bias to Europe.

The push accelerated after UK pension scheme Nest agreed to buy a 10% stake in IFM in February. At the time, IFM said it planned to launch three new private market strategies – infrastructure equity, infrastructure debt, and private equity – over the following 12-18 months.

Founded and owned by a consortium of Australian pension funds, IFM manages approximately AUD 138.4bn (USD 90.1bn) of infrastructure assets globally, representing more than half of its overall AUD 232.3bn AUM.

The firm operates from 13 offices across Australia, Europe, North America and Asia.

IFM did not respond to a request for comment.