Senior small caps portfolio manager Matthew Booker is considering his next move after lasting less than a year at Paradice Investment Management, where he has been replaced by former Investors Mutual analyst Rishi Khilnani.

Prior to joining Paradice IM in January 2006, Booker spent fifteen months at Credit Suisse Asset Management where he helped that firm maintain top-quartile small cap returns. Before that he had been on the sell-side at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, but yesterday Booker gave no sign of returning to broking. “I’m talking to several buy-side firms, it’s a critical decision for me so I’m taking my time,”; Booker said. “;I want a long-term position with a stable organisation.” Booker would not elaborate on the reasons for the brevity of his tenure at Paradice IM. “;I’ve got a lot of friends there…sometimes these things just don’t work out,”; he said. Khilnani joined Paradice IM following Booker’s departure in November, after five years at Investors Mutual, the last three of which were as a small cap analyst. Khilnani is working alongside David Paradice and Adam Harvey as portfolio managers for the firm’s flagship small caps fund. At the time of Khilnani’s departure, Investors Mutual hired Tony Waters as a small cap analyst. He had spent eight years at CCZ equities as its senior industrial analyst, and also portfolio manager for the broker’s in-house investment business, Peak Funds Management.