Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSSB) has won a hotly contested mandate to sell shares on behalf of Marconi, the troubled UK telecoms equipment supplier, for the second time this year.

SSSB sold about 6.1 million shares in Lottomatica, the company which runs Italy's state lottery, on Wednesday morning. The shares were sold in about 30 minutes at €6.55, a 1% discount to the previous day's close, to raise €40.8m ($36m). The bank has made a profit of about £700,000 (€1.1m) as Marconi said it sold the Lottomatica shares, 60% of its stake, for approximately £25m.