ICBC International Holdings Ltd will hire more people from global rivals as it expands abroad to compete with the likes of Morgan Stanley and UBS AG for advisory work, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

The Hong Kong-based company plans to expand its workforce "significantly" over the next two years as it moves beyond helping Chinese companies sell stock or find takeover targets, said Mary MacLeod, ICBC International's deputy chief executive officer. She was chief operating officer of Deutsche Bank's investment banking unit in the Asia-Pacific region before joining ICBC International, the report said.

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"We are increasingly internationalizing our workforce," said MacLeod in an interview with Bloomberg.

"As our client base and our presence continue to expand beyond China and globally, we need to ensure that our bankers have the experience to operate in a global framework," she said.

In addition, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, the parent of ICBC International, in April said it hired Deutsche Bank's Lee Zhang as a vice-president, the report said.