Nordea Asset Management has expanded its offering with the appointment of CBRE Clarion Securities to manage a newly lunched global listed infrastructure fund.

The €204.8bn asset manager said it has created the Nordea 1 – Global Listed Infrastructure Fund to tap into the rising demand for new and existing infrastructure, which requires on-going investment to upgrade and replace.

Listed infrastructure is a “solid late-cycle alternative”, Nordea said, adding that the asset class provides a “defensive and stable growth profile anchored by dividend income”, as well as inflation-linked revenues and growth from reinvestment capital.

Jeremy Anagnos, CBRE Clarion Securities, said: “Cash flows and dividends benefit from contractually driven, inflation-linked revenue growth, which may provide a long-term hedge against inflation and rising interest rates.”

Nordea said it has also appointed Duff & Phelps Investment Management to take over its Nordea 1 – Global Real Estate Fund, a fund which invests in listed real estate.

John Creswell, executive managing director at Duff & Phelps Investment Management, said: “Listed real estate has both stock- and bond-like characteristics, so it is considered defensive relative to the broader stock market.

“Because real estate has evolved as an asset class, we have found that management and corporate governance is stronger than in previous cycles. A more sophisticated capital structure, lower debt levels and a closer focus on future supply mean that it should be able to better withstand a future economic downturn.”