Equity Trustees, the Australian wealth management and estate planning firm, has appointed an interim chief investment officer while waiting for results of its takeover bid for The Trust Company.

George Bourbouras joins the company from UBS Wealth Management, where he served as head of investment strategy and consulting. Before that, he was with Macquarie Bank and also worked for the likes of HSBC Asset Management, Challenger Financial, Westpac and NSW Treasury.

The firm said naming a permanent CIO is still premature given that its proposed deal with The Trust Company has not been finalised.

Equity Trustees recently extended the deadline for its offer period for The Trust Company to 5 June 2013, from 6 May, to give the company and its shareholders more time to consider the bid. The transaction's offer ratio is 33 EQT shares for every 100 shares in The Trust Company.