DLA Piper has added to its Hong Kong finance team with the hire of Mayer Brown JSM's former head of structured finance for Asia, Ben Sandstad.

The UK firm, whose Hong Kong office has traditionally been heavily focused on equity capital markets work, is currently looking to strengthen its projects and finance groups in Asia whilst regional IPOs remain thin on the ground. 

In January this year, DLA also boosted the practice in Beijing with the appointment of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) partner Carolyn Dong and her team of four associates.

In 2012 it appointed Clifford Chance partner Robert Caldwell, who also joined the team in Hong Kong to advise Asian financial institutions.

Specialising in structured finance, debt capital markets and derivatives, Sandstad joins the firm this week from the Hong Kong office of Mayer Brown JSM, where he was head of structured finance for the region.

He has previously practiced in Hong Kong, Tokyo and in Australia with domestic firm Clayton Utz, predominantly acting for financial institutions and corporates.

As well as advising on structured funding transactions driven by tax, regulatory and funding requirements, he also represents parties in relation to structured bond issuances, ABCP programs, Islamic bond issuances and RMB Bond transactions.

He has likewise represented issuers, arrangers, swap providers and trustees in a range of securitisation deals involving asset jurisdictions and asset classes, as well as end-users and market-makers in OTC derivatives transactions.

DLA Piper currently has a large number of offices in Asia, covering key markets including Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Australia.

The firm is yet to find a replacement for its head of Asia projects and energy finance Martin David, who left the firm join Ince & Co in Singapore last month.