Gravis Capital Partners, a London infrastructure advisory established last year, is launching a debt-based infrastructure fund for retail investors.

The GCP Infrastructure Fund, listed in the Channel Islands, exposes investors to the UK infrastructure market and will primarily invest in projects developed under the government's Private Finance Initiative, a way of funding major infrastructure investments such as schools, hospitals and transport services without immediate use of public sector capital.

The fund intends to advance loans against selected PFI and similar public sector contracts and will provide investors with inflation-protected returns at very significant margins over government debt, the firm said in a statement. Investors will also benefit from the protection afforded by long-dated secure quasi-government contracts, it continued.

"Global infrastructure as an asset class has an estimated value of $17 trillion and this sector is expected to continue growing. But the disruption in financial markets has restricted the availability of debt from banks and this has given rise to a wide range of investment opportunities, giving us a window to secure high grade loan assets at extremely attractive yields," said Stephen Ellis, head of funds advisory at Gravis.

Investors in the fund should be looking for a long-term investment opportunity as the loans are advanced on a 5-30 year basis. In the first year the fund is targeting a 5.5 per cent return, aiming to produce an 8 per cent return per annum thereafter, net of fees and expenses.