One of the biggest state pension funds in the US is spearheading a plan to form investment consortiums with pension plans, endowments and sovereign wealth funds in an effort to gain favourable terms on public and private deals.

Orin Kramer, chairman of the $80bn New Jersey Investment Council, told the Financial Times: “We will explore the possibility of strategic co-investment partnerships with a range of institutions. We have approved a policy that will see us do direct investments and do them with outside investors.”