BoA Merrill grabs Michael Luk from Deutsche

Michael Luk, head of Asia fixed-income capital markets and Asia leveraged debt capital markets at Deutsche Bank, has resigned and, according to sources, will be moving to Bank of America Merrill Lynch to head up debt capital markets for Asia-Pacific.

Rick Stoddard, BoA Merrill's current head of DCM for Asia-Pacific, is rumoured to be taking on a senior finance role at the bank.

BoA Merrill has been making proactive steps to add to its fire power within DCM. As one source said: "Look at the platform from what it was to where it is now. BoA Merrill is a universal bank now with expansion into leveraged finance plus there's more funding for mergers & acquisitions business too. This means there's room for more people to come on board."

In February this year, BoA Merrill announced the appointment of Alastair Borthwick and Lisa Cornoy as co-heads of global capital markets. It also named Rupert Hume-Kendell as chairman of GCM. At the time, the bank stated that "our strategy for growing the business in 2010 will centre on leveraging the momentum and success we've created in the US to build greater market share in Europe, Asia and Latin America".

At the regional level, in December 2009, BoA Merrill hired Ranobir Mukherji from UBS to head up the Asia debt capital markets business. Mukherji officially started his position two weeks ago and currently reports to Stoddard. Under the current structure, Stoddard's remit includes Australia and Japan, while Mukherji covers non-Japan Asia.

Luk has been with Deutsche since 2001 when he was hired as a director of DCM focusing on cross-border financing. Before joining the German bank he was a director of DCM at Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong where he covered primary debt origination across the Asia-Pacific region with a specific focus on the investment-grade and high-yield sectors in Southeast Asia. Prior to that, he worked in various corporate finance positions with Citicorp group in Australia, Thailand and Hong Kong. He also has experience from Europe and the US.

At Deutsche, the current leadership structure is expected to remain unchanged after Luk's departure. Luk reported to Daniel Mamadou and Venky Vishwanathan, who are co-heads of DCM and corporate coverage. This layer is expected to remain in place.

Both Deutsche Bank and BoA Merrill declined to comment.