REUTERS - Deutsche Bank has poached UBS' veteran head of investment banking in Thailand, Mr Phumchai Kambhato, in a push to take advantage of Thai companies' growing appetite for overseas deals, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Thailand firmly emerged on Southeast Asia's investment banking map last year when Thai companies launched a record US$24.7 billion worth of outbound mergers and acquisitions, more than the combined total of the previous 10 years.

Mr Kambhato will take up a new dual role as Deutsche Bank's head of corporate banking and securities, as well as head of corporate finance for Thailand, one of the sources told Reuters.

He will be based in Bangkok.

A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman and a UBS spokeswoman in Singapore declined to comment. The sources declined to be named because the hiring has not been made public.

Mr Kambhato, who has been with UBS since 2004, resigned a few weeks ago, one of the sources told Reuters, the second major departure in the Swiss bank's investment banking business in Southeast Asia.

United States investment bank Evercore Partners this week announced it had hired UBS' head of Singapore and Malaysia investment banking, Mr Keith Magnus, to set up its Singapore office.