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IFM builds out London debt team

The global fund manager, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, continues to add to the infrastructure debt team led by David Cooper.

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IFM Investors has bolstered its European infrastructure debt team by hiring Lucy Willsher, who joins from SMBC Europe.

Willsher joins IFM as an associate in its growing European debt investments team, which was formed in December last year.

She will report to executive director David Cooper, and work alongside investment analyst Hanna Lindberg, who joined in June, IFM said in a statement. Willsher’s role will be to originate, execute and manage infrastructure debt investments. 

She joins from SMBC Europe, where she was a manager in the firm’s infrastructure finance team. Prior to that, she worked as a manager at WestLB for two years, having begun her career in PwC’s financial advisory team in 2007.

“Institutional investors are increasingly turning to non-conventional asset classes for real returns, and infrastructure debt sits firmly in the high quality credit space, paying a reliable income stream,” Cooper said in the statement.

IFM managed £1.5 billion of infrastructure debt investments as of 30 September 2013.