King & Spalding has hired two new securities partners in its London office to expand its capital markets team in the City.

US qualified lawyers Markus Bauman and Tom O'Neill both join the firm as partners. Bauman joins from Latham & Watkins, while O'Neill had previously practiced at Linklaters.

Both partners act on debt and equity matters including IPOs, rights offerings, bond issues, high-yield issues and block trades.

Bauman recently worked on a €1.36 billion block trade for Repsol YPF and the $450 million infrastructure bond issue by Mersin International Port. O'Neill acted on the Royal Mail’s £1.9 billion privatisation and Emlak Konut’s $1.6 billion secondary public offering.

Ray Baltz, leader of King & Spalding’s corporate practice group said: “Tom’s broad capital markets experience is a natural complement to the complex M&A, private equity and finance work we provide our clients, while Markus’s capital markets experience and his perspective as both in-house and outside counsel lend insight and depth to the firm’s growing European capital markets work.”