BofA appoints Killingback head of Asia mergers advisory

Bank of America Corp. named David Killingback head of mergers advisory for the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan.

Killingback will report to Jayanti Bajpai and Jiro Seguchi, co-heads of investment banking for Asia, and Adrian Mee, head of international M&A advisory.

Bank of America dismissed Michael Cho as co-head of mergers and acquisitions in Asia, a person with knowledge of the matter said this week.

Bank of America is cutting about 15 managing directors from its investment bank in Asia, according to a person with knowledge of the reductions. Sluggish demand for new debt and equity helped lower third-quarter investment banking fees by 31 percent.

The lender’s ranking in M&A advisory in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan slipped to seventh in 2011 from sixth the year before, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cho’s role did not involve India and Australia.

Bank of America also named Raj Balakrishnan and Asit Bhatia as co-heads of investment banking in India, according to the memo. Chen Min, a real estate banker, will be appointed as head of Asia corporate finance, the document showed.

Mark Tsang, a spokesman for Bank of America in Hong Kong, confirmed the memo’s contents.

Julian Lee, a managing director in the bank’s China team, and Nicholas Tye, head of equity-linked origination for Asia, were among senior executives who left this week as part of the job cuts, said two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.