NETHERLANDS - A&O Services, which runs the €3.2bn Dutch painters pension fund BPF Schilders, has awarded a €450m pan-European equity index mandate to private bank Theodoor Glissen.

Theodoor Glissen, part of the KBL European Private Bankers network, said it would manage a portfolio tracking the FTSEurofirst 300 index.

"After an extensive market search for this category we have chosen Theodoor Glissen," Raymond Hitrop, A&O Services' head of investments was quoted as saying.

"We strongly believe that our decision to team up with Theodoor Glissen will be of mutual benefit."

"This new mandate shows that we are on the right track with our tailored and flexible approach to index investment management," said Lodewijk van der Kroft, Theodoor Glissen's director of institutional asset management.

The firm uses an index-tracking model developed by consulting firm ORTEC.

Earlier this year A&O chose the then Merrill Lynch Investment Managers to implement a €1.4bn swap and swaptions mandate.