AXA Investment Managers-Real Assets has raised an initial €730m for a European infrastructure debt fund.

The manager said its European Infra Senior 1 vehicle was backed by five institutions.

The fund, which has been capped at €1.5bn, will target senior secured debt investments in the transportation, telecommunications, social and energy (including renewables) sectors, with a preference for brownfield assets.

Isabelle Scemama, head of funds, said there was increasing appetite among institutional investors for the strategy.

AXA IM-Real Assets has so far invested €3.1bn in infrastructure debt, spread over 35 transactions in France, the UK, the Nordics and Germany and mainly in transport and energy.

European Infra Senior 1 seeks to provide institutional investors with defensive and stable income by investing into a diversified portfolio of core infrastructure project-financing across pan-European markets.

AXA-IM Real Assets said the fund would co-invest alongside existing mandates managed by its infrastructure finance team.

Both the primary and secondary markets will be considered, the manager said.