Irish fund manager Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) has been appointed to handle a European equities portfolio for a Scottish local authority. The Edinburgh-based Lothian Pension Fund awarded the £20m ($33m) mandate last month, which is additional to the £120m European portfolio that is already managed by Morgan Grenfell.

Francis Ellison, BIAM managing director in London, says: Lothian are in-creasing their exposure in Europe."

BIAM has also been ap-pointed by Lincolnshire County Council Pension Fund to manage an equities mandate for the Far East, excluding Japan, and it has won this in competition with Invesco and Equity & Law. It aleady manages a European equities mandate for the fund.

The Lincolnshire County Council pension fund is valued at £540m. David Forbes, a council finance officer, says: "Bank of Ireland's European mandate is for £41m and the Far East mandate is for £27m."

BIAM's Ellison says: "We do all our stock picking in Dublin and it is encouraging to see a non-UK house picking up business in the UK for European and overseas mandates.""