A small but significant number of pension funds have built up considerable expertise in the market with specialist teams transacting and managing investments directly, as illustrated by the funds highlighted earlier in the chapter. But the fact remains that there are many more pension funds that have little, if any, expertise. For these funds infrastructure as an asset class remains a niche within an alternative investment niche. Against this infrastructure deficit, there seems to be a need for the industry itself to do more to promote itself to the broader pensions community.
The pension sector is not a homogenous group of investors, but there are some clear trends in the types of investments they are seeking and the industry needs to more fully understand them.