(Bloomberg) -- Houlihan Lokey Inc. hired former Bank of America Corp and HSBC Holdings Plc banker Andy Cairns to lead capital markets in the Middle East and Africa, a newly-created role that will help the investment bank tap a strong pipeline of deals.

Cairns will oversee and build out Houlihan Lokey’s capital markets business across the region, offering local clients access to global capital and providing access to Middle Eastern capital to clients across the world, according to a statement.

Cairns most recently worked for the United Arab Emirates’ biggest lender, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, where he was head of global corporate finance. There he worked on deals including several initial public offerings and sovereign bond sales and was one of several senior bankers to recently leave the banking giant. 

The Middle East has been a bright spot for IPOs in 2022, a year otherwise marked by stock selloffs and recession fears. Elevated oil prices and investor inflows has driven deals in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the pipeline still remains busy.

Before his time at FAB, Cairns was head of cross-border debt capital markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, co-head of HSBC’s Asia-Pacific debt finance and also worked at Standard Chartered Plc, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Houlihan Lokey has been expanding in the Middle East and earlier this year hired a former Berenberg banker to run its regional oil and gas coverage. The U.S. boutique bank is involved in the region’s biggest and most complex restructuring of Saudi construction conglomerate Binladin Group. 

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