“However, investors should be very wary of the structure of some of these mandates with careful attention being paid to the ‘net of fees’ proposition, in particular for infrastructure.”

Real estate was still the most popular alternatives asset class, with 52 per cent of assets worldwide, which was down from 58 per cent a year earlier. Infrastructure accounts for 12 per cent, compared with 9 per cent in 2008.

In global rankings, Macquarie was first, followed by ING (US$32.36 billion from pension funds) and JP Morgan (US$ 27.77 billion).