Four large industry funds have teamed up and appointed specialist alternative assets adviser, Quentin Ayers, to manage a fund-of-funds focussed on global private equity and infrastructure.

The Local Government Super Scheme NSW (LGSS) is the biggest seeder of the new fund, committing $550 million, while allocations from Energy Industries Super Scheme NSW, Stevedoring Employees Retirement Fund and Seafarers Retirement Fund (SRF) will take it “;up near a billion”;, according to LGSS chief executive Peter Lambert. He said the commitment to alternatives had been decided by the funds some time ago, but a delegate committee had only decided to use a fund-of-funds structure run by Quentin Ayers in the past couple of weeks. The first investment of the new fund-of-funds is currently being transferred – into a distressed debt fund – while a meeting of the delegate committee this Thursday is set to sign off on a second investment, in the domestic opportunistic property arena. The fund secretary of SRF, Glenn Davis, said his fund had earmarked $100 million over three years to the fund-of-funds, which he expected to provide superior returns with lower volatility than listed markets.