Regional investment bank EFG Hermes is opening a permanent office in New York, angling to become the one-stop-shop of choice for North American investors looking to tap opportunities in emerging and frontier markets, the company said in a statement. The office will be headed by Karim Baghdady, a 10-year Wall Street veteran and familiar face to many Enterprise readers. The move comes as EFG Hermes begins to penetrate frontier markets, starting with the announcement earlier this year that it was entering Pakistan with the acquisition of Invest and Finance Securities Limited (IFS). About 60% of frontier market flows originate in the North America.

Baghdady, who joined EFG Hermes on September 1, was most recently the Director of International Sales at CI Capital, where he led that firm’s presence in North America. He tells us: “EFG Hermes already has a hyper-focus on client service developed over decades in MENA. We know how to package a full investment banking offering, including outstanding research, for North American investors, and now we’re doing this for new EM and frontier markets. The goal is the bridge the information gap a North American investor faces — we have the experience navigating new compliance and regulatory environments — and replicate our expertise across markets including Sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, and Pakistan. We’re delivering high-quality research and deep knowledge of regulatory environments so that the investor has access to 20 or 25 markets through a single office in New York.”

EFG Hermes shares advanced 3.6% in trading yesterday as the market welcomed the news, which has gotten wide pickup in the financial press and trades. Baghdady spoke with Bloomberg’s Youssef Gamal El-Din yesterday morning to break the news (watch, run time: 3:32), while our friend Mohamed Ebeid was on CNBC Arabia doing the same (watch, run time: 5:02). More: Bloomberg, Reuters.