Hastings Funds Management has won an infrastructure debt investment mandate from the Development Bank of Japan.

The Australia-based global infrastructure fund manager has been asked to target investments in OECD countries.

The size of the mandate was not disclosed but Andrew Day, CEO of Hastings, said expected the relationship to “expand over time”.

He said: “This marks another important milestone in Hastings’ continued successful and rapid extension of our Asian footprint.”

In December 2014, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, one of Japan’s largest banks, appointed Hastings to invest in European infrastructure debt on its behalf.

Sumitomo started with an initial target commitment of ¥25bn (€205m) for junior and senior debt opportunities.

Day said the latest mandate adds to infrastructure debt business that now has AUD3bn (€2.14bn) in funds under management.

By the end of Janaury, Hastings had invested in more than 40 infrastructure debt vehicles globally, he said.

One of Hastings’ earlier mandates came from the RBS Group Pension Fund in the UK, which, in 2012, allocated an initial £750m to the firm to manage and develop private market infrastructure assets.

As with the Japanese mandates that followed, the RBS capital was earmarked for infrastructure investment in the UK and select OECD countries.