The $9.5 billion New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (NMERB) now has the ability to form partnerships and invest directly in infrastructure after a recently approved change to its investment policy.

The first step in making direct infrastructure investments was when NMERB hired the Toronto-based infrastructure consultant Caledon Capital Management in 2011. Caledon, which is co-headed by Asif Hussain, who ran Borealis, the infrastructure arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), and David Rogers, who headed private equity for OMERS, was hired with the aim of creating a co-investment and direct infrastructure investment program for NMERB.

NMERB, which began investing in infrastructure in 2008, currently has a 3.5 percent allocation to the asset class worth approximately $330 millio