Eversheds has appointed corporate partner Stephen Kitts as its new Asia managing partner following the departure of Nick Seddon last month.

Kitts, who recently relocated to Asia from the UK, will preside over a brand new Asia management team consisting of head of corporate Stephen Mok, head of litigation Ivan Ng, and head of finance King Tak Fung. 

All four are based in the firm's Hong Kong office, but will have responsibility for their areas of practice across all of Eversheds' offices in the region. The three local practice heads are newly-created roles.

The appointments are effective immediately with Kitts taking the reigns from UK managing partner Lee Ranson, who stepped in as Asia interim manager while a successor to former regional head Seddon was found.

Ranson said of the appointments: "The next stage of our journey in Asia is to drive closer integration with the rest of our global business and to continue to invest in high calibre front line practitioners, in particular in corporate, finance and litigation.

"I am pleased to announce these new appointments for key roles in our new Asia management structure to drive forward Eversheds' strategic objectives and continue to grow our presence in the region – including opening a new office in Beijing this year."

Separately, Eversheds has entered a relationship with Danish firm Ronne & Lundgren following the closure of its 29-strong Danish operation last month as part of a redundancy consultation involving 166 staff. The deal will see a number of people from Eversheds' Copenhagen office transfer over to the Danish firm.