NETHERLANDS – Blue Sky Group, which manages around eight billion euros of the pension assets of airline KLM, has awarded 200 million dollars in enhanced equities to Atlantic Asset Management.

Stamford, Connecticut-based Atlantic said it has been appointed by Blue Sky and would use a “synthetic enhanced stock index strategy” using Standard & Poor’s 500 futures alongside its enhanced cash-management process.

The mandate was funded in February and will be benchmarked against the S&P 500 index.

A spokesman for Blue Sky confirmed the appointment but declined to provide further details. “It’s a replacement for another manager,” said Atlantic managing director Elaine Hunt, though she declined to be more specific.

“We are proud to have been recognised by Blue Sky Group for our expertise in managing enhanced stock index portfolios,” Hunt said in a statement. She added that Atlantic has more than 750 million dollars in this strategy. It has a total of around 9.7 billion dollars under management.

Blue Sky was the internal pension department of KLM and became independent in 1999.