Legal & General Investment Management, the passive specialist fund manager, won a record £52.6bn (€70.3bn) in new mandates in the year to December, up 155% on the previous year, as it reaped the rewards of UK pension schemes increasing their exposure to passive management.

The asset manager, which today released its headline sales data ahead of schedule, recorded new business of £20.2bn in the fourth quarter, making this its strongest quarter of the year, after securing a large outsourcing brief from asset manager Hermes.