Booker, the UK food wholesalers, has appointed Bankers Trust to manage a £33m ($53.79m) South East Asian equities mandate, following a move to specialist overseas asset management. The company have also chosen State Street as global custodians for their £425m total assets.

The move follows the downsizing of previous balanced managers Cazenove and Mercury to cover only UK portfolios, with Booker trustees seeking improved fund performances", which they felt would be better served using specialist managers, according to Chris Leach, group pensions manager."