Blue Sky Group, managers of the Dutch airline KLM pension fund, has appointed Pimco to manage a €218m ($276m) inflation-linked bond mandate, to diversify its asset pool and hedge inflation risk.

The win for the world's largest bond manager comes as Blue Sky has been appointing managers in the past months to diversify and boost returns. It recently gave Intech, a subsidiary of Janus Capital Group, its first European mandate for a $250m (€197.4m) enhanced indexed US large-cap fund.