NETHERLANDS- Blue Sky group, manager of the KLM pension fund, has appointed Ashmore Investment Management, Bridgewater Associates and Pimco each to run a $85m mandate in emerging market debt.

Previously Blue Sky ran its emerging market debt on a passive basis but now believes an active approach may in fact pay dividends.

Gerben Wanningen, fund manager for fixed income and currencies at Blue Sky Group, said: “we have been invested passively in emerging market debt for some time but have observed that this is a highly imperfect market, driven by a complexity of economic, financial, and institutional factors unique to emerging markets. As a result a specialist can add significant value over the benchmark.”

Wanningen says the managers were appointed largely on their track records. Ashmore, for example, has produced gross excess returns of over 10% per annum for institutional clients since 1992.

Mark Coombs, managing director of Ashmore, says most of the interest in emerging market debt has historically come from north American institutional investors but that European investors are becoming increasingly interested.

Last month the e34bn Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension Scheme ATP appointed Citigroup Asset Management and Pimco to manage jointly a $200m (e203m) emerging market bond portfolio.