UK - The British American Tobacco UK Pension Fund has selected Scottish Widows Investment Partnership to manage a 165 million-pound (248.8 million-euro) mixed bond mandate.

It is the largest win for the asset management arm of Lloyds TSB, which at the end of the year had 77 billion pounds in funds under management.

SWIP will be in charge of a brief that includes investment in corporate bonds, UK gilts and overseas bonds.

"BAT recently undertook a selection exercise, interviewing several top managers. SWIP was chosen because of its excellent track-record across the bond spectrum," SWIP said in a statement.

Chris Walker, head of SWIP's institutional business, said: "This is SWIP's largest win so far in 2004 and reflects our strong abilities in bonds."

Mercer Investment Consulting acted as consultant. SWIP's institutional bond business has 5.2billion pounds under management.