Neil Kell, Deutsche Bank’s former ECM head for Asia excluding Japan and Australasia, will re-join Bank of America Merrill Lynch as chairman of international equity capital markets.
Kell is currently serving gardening leave and will not start for a few months, according to a source close to the situation.
He will work out of Hong Kong for a year before moving to London, the source said, and will report jointly to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global co-heads of ECM, London-based Craig Coben and Mary Ann Deignan out of New York.
A spokeswoman declined to comment.
As chairman of international equity capital markets, he will oversee the US bank’s global deals, a apt role for Kell given his experience covering ECM in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Kell left Deutsche Bank earlier in March after just over a year in the role. He relocated from London to Hong Kong last January to take on the head of ECM for Asia ex Japan and Australasia position. He jointly reported to Bhupinder Singh, co-head of corporate banking & securities in Asia Pacific and Mark Hantho, global head of ECM at Deutsche.
He joined the German bank in 2010 to oversee its ECM financial institutions group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
In his first stint with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Kell was director of investment banking and equity capital markets, according to his LinkedIn profile. While at the US bank, his team won roles on high-profile deals such as Barclays’ rights issue and the recapitalisation of the Bank of Ireland.
Before that, he worked at Scotia Capital for two years as a director in the bank’s Toronto office, and before that, as an investment analyst at PJ Doherty & Associates in Ottawa for three years.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been on a number of notable deals in the first quarter this year, including the Indian government’s $3.6 billion share sale in state-run Coal India in February and on HDFC’s $1.6 billion dual-share sale in the US and India, also in February.
