ING Real Estate has launched a €1bn (£785m) European infrastructure fund that will purchase assets ranging from wind farms to motorway service stations.

The minimum required investment in the fund is €10m (£7.85m) and investors have been offered a return of at least 10%. It will be seeded with existing assets held by ING. News of the fund was revealed by Property Week (23.11.07).

Richard Games, head of the fund’s management team, said: ‘Our infrastructure fund offer is in direct response to market demand. The stability of returns, strong cash flow content and natural inflation hedge, give significant benefits to an investment portfolio.’

‘Given the volatility of the current market, infrastructure assets with their low correlation to the economic cycle and other asset classes become very appealing to investors.’

ING will place the following two assets into the fund: a 24.9% stake in Q7, an offshore wind farm project on the Dutch continental shelf, and; a 29% stake in the Appia consortium, the owner of motorway services stations company, Welcome Break Group.