If investors’ interest in infrastructure is any indicator, it can be safely said that companies financing core sector projects have a sunny future. Surpassing its own expectation, financial services major Morgan Stanley has closed the Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) fund with $4 billion of equity commitments. The fund had set an initial target of $2.5 billion and plans to invest in assets that provide public goods or essential services in sectors such as transportation, energy and utilities, social infrastructure and communications, the company said in a statement.

“The successful fund-raising underscores the particular demand for infrastructure investment, and broadly, for alternative assets that generate long-term stable cashflows,” Morgan Stanley co-president James Gorman said. The fund was raised from markets in North America, Europe, Australia, Middle East and Asia and the investors included major pension funds, insurance companies and HNIs, it said. MSIP is managed by the company’s global investment platform, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, which is a division of the merchant banking division within Morgan Stanley investment management, the company said.

“To date, we have investments that exceed $1 billion in enterprise value that have achieved higher than expected returns,” said Sadek Wahba, chief investment officer and global head of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure. “The current challenging market conditions are creating unique opportunities in the infrastructure sector, and we are benefiting from our global footprint that is generating a strong investment pipeline across the Americas, Europe and Asia.”

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure’s investment team is located in New York, London, Hong Kong and Beijing. Morgan Stanley investment management has $577-billion assets under management as on February 29, 2008, the company said, adding it is operating from 600 offices in 33 countries.