AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has closed its 10th commercial real estate (CRE) senior debt fund, CRE Senior 10, having raised around €1.5bn from 19 European institutional investors.

Timothé Rauly, head of funds group at AXA IM Real Assets, said: “We have already started deploying funds in the US through mortgage loans and bonds in line with our policy of broader allocation in the country.”

The sum invested in the US is more than a quarter of the total amount of the capital AXA IM has already deployed, the firm said.

The total of initial investments is around €400m.

The fund is to have an initial mandate in the US, through which it is permitted to allocate up to 25% of the total fund.

“This expanded reach is supported by the continuing strength of the US economy and underpins AXA IM Real Assets’ 360° approach to investing in real assets, by sourcing opportunities in equity or debt, across different geographies and sectors, as well as via private or listed instruments,” the company said.

AXA announced in January that it had decided to increase its weighting of US loans in this latest fund.

It said the fundraising – which achieved the fund’s capped target – brought AXA IM’s total debt platform to over €14bn of commitments.

Some 84% of the investors backing the new fund had invested through AXA IM Real Assets’ real estate debt platform before.