AMP Capital is midway through raising US$2 billion for its third Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF3) as they increasingly turns to overseas assets as a major investment.

Launched a year ago, the fund has raised half of its target so far, US$1 billion, and is almost twice as large as two  already operational and similar AMP Capital funds. The IDF1 and the IDF2 collected respectively US$500 million and US$1.1 billion with an extra US$250 million of additional co-investment pledges. IDF1 fund is fully subscribed and IDF3 is a 10-year close-ended fund. 12 countries have lined up for IDF3.

The three funds have attracted nearly 100 institutional investors so far and has been popular with Japanese and South Korean investors keen to chase the yields for capital raising. Asian investors has more than tripled, according to estimations, over the past three years. It’s likely that IDF3 will invest mainly in utilities, energy and transport.

All of the funds have also acted as primary arranger for the Holdco debt tranche in the Abbot Point coal terminal in Queensland and have also invested US$3 billion in 56 infrastructure assets since 2001. Korea has already invested US$18 billion in Australia, but a new round of tyre-kicking is likely to lead to a substantial increase.