Merrill Lynch has promoted Kenneth Poon to head of equity capital markets in Asia as the bank aims to move up the league table rankings in China, where the government is planning initial public offerings worth some $12.5bn (€9.7bn) this year.

Poon has been working for Merrill Lynch in Asia for six years as a managing director in ECM. Angus Macpherson, head of Asia capital markets & financing for Merrill, said: "He will be responsible for ensuring that we capture and maintain market share across all ECM products including new issuance activity in equity, equity linked and equity derivative products."