ALLAN Munro, the former managing director of Ivory & Sime, paid tribute yesterday to the success of its merger with Friends Provident's fund management arm to create the reinvented Isis Asset Management, at the group's annual meeting in Edinburgh.

Munro, 56, who stepped down in 1999 after 30 years with the firm, culminating in his brokering the deal to create Friends Ivory & Sime, was congratulating the chairman, Sir David Kinloch, who has announced he will step down before next year's meeting. Kinloch, still a non-executive director at Caledonia Investments, which had a significant stake in Ivory & Sime, joined the board of I & S in 1994 and became chairman a year later. Munro said shareholders and employees of I & S would want to thank Kinloch ''for the support you gave the company and for leading us into a very successful merger''.

Howard Carter, chief execut-ive of Isis, told the meeting that the group's diversified business model had enabled it to maintain the dividend through the bear market, and it was still aiming to be one of the top five investment brands by 2007.

On possible acquisitions he said: ''If the right opportunities come along, we will look at them very seriously.''

He said because Isis was an ''early mover'' in the outsourcing of administration, it would be able to offer job continuity and hopefully enhanced career prospects to all affected staff.