Natixis, the French bank, has brought a fourth insurance-sector investor into the €4.5 billion infrastructure debt partnership business that it has been building for the past three years, enabling it to work around post-crisis capital restrictions on lending.

Natixis, an important player in project finance in Europe, kicked off its programme in October 2012 with a tie-up with the Belgo-Dutch insurer Ageas. It followed up with similar partnerships with the French insurers CNP Assurances in December 2013 and Macif in December 2014.