REFILE-UPDATE 1-Merrill taps veteran M. Stanley banker Keyes

(Refiles to clarify job role in first paragraph)

HONG KONG, April 16 (Reuters) - Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch MER.N has tapped Terence Keyes, an 11-year veteran at rival Morgan Stanley (MS.N), as head of Asia corporate finance, with a focus on deal execution, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The move comes as investors in Asia and globally are hostile to new equity and debt issues, putting a premium on bankers skilled at seeing deals through to completion.

Keyes, a Briton, moved to Hong Kong in 1994 with SG Warburg and in his most recent role at Morgan Stanley has been a senior managing director with a focus on deal execution.

Keyes declined to comment.

A Morgan Stanley spokesman confirmed that Keyes will be leaving the firm, while Merrill Lynch declined comment.

Investment bankers in Asia have said in recent months that their deal pipelines are crowded with potential offerings, although billions of dollars worth of share sales have been cancelled or delayed in the face of poor demand.

Merrill Lynch is one of the underwriters of Chinese property developer Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd, which last month scrapped a $2.1 billion Hong Kong initial public offering amid weak markets.

In 2005, Keyes helped China Construction Bank (0939.HK) raise $9.2 billion in an IPO that was the world's largest in four years and the first by one of China's four big state banks.

One of the sources said Keyes would take up his new post in less than three months after completing his so-called gardening leave.

Both Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have been battered by the credit crunch stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. (Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Edmund Klamann)