Tom Emmet has been appointed to manage mergers and acquisitions business at Standard Chartered PLC in the Middle East and North America.

Emmet worked previously at Royal Bank of Scotland as head of corporate finance and equity capital markets. Considered as one of the most senior investment banker in the Middle East, Emmet will take over the business unit head position previously held by Apporva Shah, who has left to company to look for other opportunities.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the region has been slowly recovering from the global financial crisis that had hardly hit investment transactions. The activity has also doubled in 2012 compared to the transactions in 2011.

Nevertheless, figures remain low unlike the robust growth recorded in 2005 and 2007 when multi-million dollar fees were earned by banks.