Industry Funds Management (IFM), the asset manager owned by 32 industry funds, has been growing its business in the United States and expects to double its funds under management (FUM) over calendar 2011 from $600 million to $1.2 billion by the end of the year.

The firm has been successful in winning pension fund clients, especially for its global infrastructure fund.

IFM has also signed up its first European investor, after being awarded a $55 million mandate for its global infrastructure fund by a pension scheme.

"Partly, this is the result of our performance," IFM chief executive Brett Himbury said.

"In our Australian infrastructure fund we have a 12.48 per cent return per annum after fees and after taxes over the last 16 years. I challenge anyone to show me a 12.4 per cent per annum return in any asset class over that period."

Overall, IFM would grow from $25 billion in FUM in January 2011 to $32 billion at the end of the year, including mandates that were scheduled to be funded in December, Himbury said.

IFM will then have $9 billion in infrastructure assets, $3 billion in private equity, $9 billion in debt and cash assets and $11 billion in listed equities.

"We've had a wonderful year so far. Over the first four months of the new financial year, we've had about $2 billion in net inflows. That is about three times the industry average," Himbury said.

He said the growth during the volatile markets could be attributed to its traditional client base of industry funds, which continued to allocate money to the firm, but also its ownership model had made it more attractive, he said.

"Our ownership model means we act in the best interest of our investors first, before we act in the best interest of our shareholders. We are investing in our capabilities and expanding our resources at a time when most of our competitors are cutting back," he said.

Over the year, the firm has grown from about 115 staff to 130, adding business development managers in New York, London and Sydney, and also investment directors in the US.

In October, IFM announced it would provide existing clients with a one-off rebate of their fees of 12.5 per cent.

"Our growth has been greater than planned and our larger size has led to scale benefits. Most firms would pass that one to shareholders in the form of a dividend, but we pass it on to investors," Himbury said.

In Australia, IFM continues to grow its business in the industry fund sector, with a recent win of $100 million from Hostplus for an active Australian equities mandate, but it has also had recent wins among universities and charities.

"We make sure we manage money for people who have very similar characteristics to us and that is genuine long-term investors and are absolutely in the interests of their underlying members," Himbury said.