BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - China's Everbright Securities, flush with cash from a US$1.1 billion (S$1.49 billion) share sale in Hong Kong, is stepping up its expansion in the city with a slew of hires from competitors.

Among the most senior is Jerry Tse, the head of investment banking at Singapore's DBS Group Holdings, said people with knowledge of the matter. Mr Tse will run the Shanghai-based firm's investment bank and principal investments business, they said.

Li Xin, former co-head of investment banking at BOC International (Holdings), recently joined as chief investment officer and has been charged with developing Everbright's structured finance unit, the people said.

Chinese securities firms are mounting a challenge to western banks like Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, using the city as a stepping stone for further expansion. Chinese companies occupy seven of the top 10 positions in advising on Hong Kong initial public offerings this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A decade earlier, only China International Capital Corp. made that list.

Mr Tse will join Everbright as early as October, one of the people said, asking not to be named as the appointments haven't been announced. He moved to DBS from Macquarie Group in 2013. A DBS spokesman said the bank doesn't comment on market rumors or speculation.

An Everbright spokesman in Shanghai declined to comment beyond saying the firm is "setting up relevant arrangement" for its expansion overseas.

Everbright's expansion plan involves diversifying beyond the IPO business by boosting its investment banking and structured lending operations. It plans a push into fixed income, currencies and commodities, as well as merger advisory and debt capital markets, the people said.

The securities firm has added 10 senior executives to the newly established structured finance and principal investment businesses since May, including four managing directors, the people said. The brokerage plans to hire an additional 10 bankers by the end of this year, and transfer staff from Sun Hung Kai Financial, the Hong Kong brokerage and wealth- management firm it bought in 2015, one of the people said.

Among the other senior bankers joining Everbright in Hong Kong recently are Mica Mak, formerly with Citic CLSA Securities, who has been appointed head of global capital markets, and Tang Jingwei, previously at China Construction Bank International, who has joined the structured finance group at Everbright as a managing director, the people said.