Wood & Company, a leading brokerage in central and eastern Europe, has hired a team from rival Unicredit and opened an office in London for the first time in a bid to take advantage of rising demand among western investors for emerging markets securities.

The firm, which was founded in the Czech Republic in 1991 following the fall of the Berlin Wall, has taken premises in Berkeley Square and hired an initial staff of six - with plans to grow that figure to 15 by the end of the year, according to Andrea Ferancová, a partner and head of equities at the group.