Dentons has boosted its Hong Kong capital markets practice with the hire of corporate partner Gordon Ng from O'Melveny & Myers.

Ng, who is best known for his work on Hong Kong IPOs, will join the firm as head of corporate finance and capital markets for Asia, effective July 1.

He joined O'Melveny in 2010 from Hogan Lovells in Hong Kong where he served as managing partner of the local office.

Hong Kong qualified and fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, he has more than 17 years of experience working with clients on complex corporate and financing transactions in Greater China.

His appointment brings the number of partners in the Dentons Hong Kong office to four, including two other corporate experts Jeffrey cheung and Julianne Doe.

"It was an easy discussion for the team – Gordon is extremely well known in the domestic and international IPO markets here in Asia," said Hong Kong founding managing partner, Keith Brandt.

"This is a key move in the Hong Kong office and in the region. I fully expect there to be other appointments but we're taking it one step at a time.

"We have been pretty cautious, but we are finding our feet and looking forward with huge optimism to growing the Hong Kong office and participating in significant growth of the Dentons brand in the region."

Speaking about the prospect for the city's IPO market, Brandt said he was confident it would make a comeback: "Obviously capital markets here in Hong Kong have had a tough time over the last eight to 12 months, it's been a very tough market.

"But the market conditions are changing, and we fully expect the market to turn around in due course. Hopefully by the end of the year or certainly by the first quarter of 2014."

Dentons, formed from the merger of SNR Dention, Salans and Canada-based Fraser Milner Casgrain in March this year, currently has four offices in Asia located in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai.

It's Hong Kong office opened in January 2011 in association with Brandt Chan & Partners, with a four-partner team joining from Hammonds.

Brandt, who specialises in litigation, said the practice workload was currently around 60% corporate, corporate finance and commercial, with litigation making up around 40%.