Macquarie’s infrastructure debt platform has raised $645m (€598m) for its global debt fund.

Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (MIDIS) said its Macquarie Global Infrastructure Debt Fund received capital commitments from pension funds and insurance companies from the UK, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Portugal at close.

The pooled fund, first launched in 2016, invests alongside other MIDIS separate accounts and pooled funds which have so far raised a total of $10.2bn for investment-grade assets.

All commitments to the fund were raised from investors new to the MIDIS platform, the manager said.

Tim Humphrey, co-head of MIDIS, said: “As familiarity with the defensive characteristics of the asset class grows, we are seeing more institutional investors recognise the important role that infrastructure debt can play as part of their broader investment portfolio.

“Over the past year we have raised more than $2.3bn from investors and we would like to thank our clients for the confidence they have shown in our ability to effectively navigate the investment market.”

The fund has already made investments in the UK, Europe, US and Australia via a diverse pool of investments including transport, utilities and energy infrastructure.

Kit Hamilton, co-head of MIDIS, said: “Leveraging our proprietary channels, our team continues to carefully deploy capital in attractive opportunities on behalf of our investors.

“With a number of investments already across a diverse range of sectors, the fund is helping to finance infrastructure relied on by communities and powering the world’s transition to clean energy.”