JANA Investment Advisers is considering the possibility of "clubbing" together its small superannuation fund clients to improve their access to alternative investments such as unlisted infrastructure.
"We are thinking about it, although it is at a formative stage," JANA head of unlisted investments Robert Day said.
"The benefit of clubbing is that it could give them exposure to assets they otherwise couldn't [access]."
Day said interested funds were yet to meet.
JANA's clients include Non-Government Schools Super, the Australian Meat Industry Superannuation Trust and Equipsuper.
Professional Associations Superannuation chief investment officer Paul Kessell told the Alternative Investment Summit held in Sydney this week that investing in alternatives could be problematic for some smaller funds.
"Even if the opportunities are good in infrastructure and private equity, we can't even consider them because of our size and the size of the investments," Kessell said.
He said JANA's clubbing concept could be a positive move for smaller funds.
"Bringing together smaller super funds and creating economies of scale that would enable them to access projects they normally wouldn't be able to access is a good thing," he said.
"This issue needs to be dealt with so that smaller super funds are able to participate when the opportunity is presented."
As at 30 September 2009, Professional Associations Superannuation, which includes Recruitment Super, Accountants Super and Australian Enterprise Super, had nearly $1.5 billion in funds under management.
