BDO has announced that a 'significant' part of PKF China will join its Chinese operation - BDO Li Xin - before year end 2012.

The move will see around 350 PKF staff join the BDO operation to strengthen its position in Beijing, Shenzhen and Wuhan.

BDO says it will benefit from the state-owned Assets Supervision & Administrative Committee (SASAC) and the National Audit Office (NAO).

Jiandi Zhu, BDO China's managing partner said: 'For BDO China, local market knowledge, industry expertise and technical skills form the basis of the commercially astute and robust opinions we give to our clients.

'The combined expertise of our partners and staff with state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as well as with listed companies, will build upon our approach as well as our position in these market segments.'

Just last week, it emerged that BDO and PKF were in advanced discussions to merge in the early part of 2013 to create a single firm with a strong national presence under the BDO brand.

The merger will create a leading accountancy and advisory firm, with some 3,500 people working in the UK generating revenues of £400m. The PKF brand will cease to exist as a result of the merger.

The move was first rumoured in August but both firms denied any moves to merge their operations at the time. However, there were similar moves in Australia earlier in the year, signalling a desire to create a stronger global presence.