QIC has announced the first close of the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund (QGIF) at 50 per cent of target after raising more than A$1 billion of new capital for its Global Infrastructure platform.

QGIF has secured commitments from a range of institutional investors including Hostplus, one of Australia's largest superannuation funds, an Asian sovereign wealth fund, one of China's leading insurers and two foundation QIC clients. An additional commitment has also been made under a co-investment arrangement.

Ross Israel, Head of QIC Global Infrastructure said

"I'm delighted by the level of support and fund commitments that QGIF has been able to secure in this first close as a result of our focused marketing efforts and a strong potential investment pipeline."

QGIF is an unlisted investment vehicle that seeks to provide institutional investors with access to attractive, risk-adjusted returns through long-term exposure to a diversified portfolio of global infrastructure assets.

The fund will offer investors access to a large investable universe of attractive infrastructure assets in developed OECD economies with a focus towards Australia.  The fund is targeting A$1.75 billion of total capital commitments.

QGIF was formally launched earlier this year, driven by investor demand to access QIC's infrastructure team and its strategy.  QGIF will be managed by the same team executing the same investment strategy that has delivered a strong track record over the last nine years across three core sectors - transport, energy utilities and public private partnerships (PPP).

QGIF's first close triggers the commencement of the fund's investment period and the ability for the fund to deploy capital.