Hastings handed £750m mandate by RBS pension

Hastings Funds Management (Hastings), the Australian fund manager, has been selected to develop and manage private market infrastructure assets on behalf of The RBS Group Pension Fund. The pension fund is making an initial allocation of £750 million (€956 million; $1.6 billion).

The mandate is to source and manage core infrastructure investments in the UK and other select OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries over the long term. A statement said The RBS Group Pension Fund – one of the largest pension schemes in the UK – was seeking “exposure to assets with reliable cash flows and a strong linkage to inflation to help match their pension liabilities”.

Hastings said it will focus on sourcing infrastructure assets with “superior risk-adjusted returns across the capital structure” of assets. It added that investments may include both equity and debt and may involve owning the whole capital structure of an asset.

“Our approach is to partner with a select number of like-minded clients in this attractive asset class in what is an increasingly challenging global investment environment,” said Hastings chief executive officer Andrew Day in the statement.

At the end of May this year, Hastings had more than A$7 billion in funds under management with a portfolio of assets in the utility, airport, toll road and seaport sectors in Australia, the UK, continental Europe and the US.

The firm has had a London office since 2005 and made European investments including South East Water and Hochtief Airport Capital.