The World Bank’s private-sector arm has launched an asset management company to take equity stakes in companies in teetering emerging markets, and has hired a Goldman Sachs banker to run the venture.

The Bank’s International Finance Corporation hopes the company will attract more government and private capital to developing countries at a time when many investors are pulling their money out. Gavin Wilson, a managing director at Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division, will be chief executive of the first subsidiary the World Bank group has ever created.