Trading positions - April 2011

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BAML cuts about 15 from commodities business headcount

Approximately 15 people from Bank of America Merrill Lynch's (BAML's) commodities business have been made redundant, including the co-head of global oil trading Mitch Rubenstein, and managing director of commodities for the Asia Pacific region Diego Parilla.

Thomas Andersen, who has been the other co-head of global crude since the third quarter of 2010, will become the sole head of global crude.

The bank issued a statement saying it was repositioning rather than downsizing the business, in order to adapt to market changes: "The commodities business is an important growth area for the firm, and we are actively pursuing strategic hires."

Sales and trading revenue from BAML's fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) business declined from $3.5 billion in the third quarter of 2010 to $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, while remaining above 2009's fourth quarter figure of $1.2 billion. Sales and trading revenue of the FICC business in 2010 as a whole was $13.2 billion, up $435 million year-on-year.

Gazprom appoints LNG development director

Gazprom Global LNG (GGLNG), a subsidiary of Gazprom Marketing & Trading, announced on March 15 the appointment of Nigel Kuzemko as global director of LNG development with immediate effect. Based in Singapore, Kuzemko will report directly to London-based Frédéric Barnaud, managing director of Gazprom global LNG. Kuzemko joins GGLNG from New Zealand-based dairy co-operative Frontera, where he spent three years as director strategy and commercial. Before that he worked for Qatargas, the Qatar-based LNG producer, since 2006 as head of global LNG marketing and played a role in the development of Qatargas markets in the UK, US, Japan and Thailand.

As global director of LNG development, Kuzemko will build relationships with further LNG producers to grow the supply portfolio and work to expand the development of new technologies such as floating liquefaction. His priority will remain the development of full-value commercial chains for the Russian LNG projects of Gazprom, particularly Sakhalin and Shtokman, according to a Gazprom statement.

Nomura to close Asia-Pacific desks

Japan's global investment bank Nomura has denied news reports in March that it was exiting commodities and energy trading globally by closing its trading desks in Tokyo, London and Singapore. "This is not an exit," wrote Redzi Mangwana, a Nomura spokesperson in London.

The bank did however acknowledge in a statement that it was making cuts in the "low double digits" to its commodities and energy trading business, explaining that "Nomura continually reviews its cost base to ensure that it is appropriately sized for market conditions. As a result, we can confirm that we are refocusing the business and are reducing headcount".

Nomura built up its presence in commodities in late 2008, when it bought Lehman Brothers's Asian operations and its equities and investment banking business in EMEA, weeks after the US giant filed for bankruptcy.

RBS strengthens energy & infrastructure teams


Andrew Anderson - RBS 

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has made four senior appointments to its UK energy and infrastructure team in a bid to strengthen its oil & gas industry business.

The bank has appointed Andrew Anderson (left), Rob Nesbitt (below, right) and Jules van Limborgh (below, left) to the team's oil and gas business at director level.


Rob Nesbitt - RBS

Anderson has been an oil & gas banker for more than 10 years and joins RBS from Barclays, where he structured, led and arranged transactions for a wide variety of UK and overseas borrowers, with an emphasis on borrowing base and project finance loans.

Nesbitt has had a decade of experience in energy and corporate banking and previously worked in the RBS project finance energy advisory team.


Jules van Limborgh - RBS

Van Limborgh has 27 years of technical expertise in the sector and joins RBS from Suncor Energy where he was development director responsible for developing geoscience evaluations.

Ada Li joins the bank as associate director from the Asian Development Bank where she was an investment specialist focused on the infrastructure sector.

Anderson, Nesbit and van Limborgh will report into Andrew Buglass, head of energy, who together with Kevin Maddick, head of infrastructure, has been promoted to managing director level. Jamieson Thrower has been promoted to senior director and will combine his focus on the renewables sector with a new sponsor coverage role, working closely with clients across the energy and infrastructure business to help shape and deliver their business strategies.

Citi hires Lovegrove as global energy chair

Citi announced on March 23 that Martin Lovegrove will join the bank as chairman of its global energy business this July. In the newly created role based in London, Lovegrove will manage senior relationships, and work to develop Citi's presence in oil and gas globally.

"He is a renowned investment banker with a stellar reputation and has unrivalled relationships with CEOs within the oil and gas industry," said Raymond McGuire, head of global banking at Citi.

Lovegrove was previously vice-chairman of oil and gas at Standard Chartered, where he advised companies on upstream mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. He has been involved in the oil and gas business since 1971. In 1999, he co-founded Harrison Lovegrove, an advisory firm, which was acquired by Standard Chartered Bank in 2007. Last year as vice-chairman, Lovegrove helped BP assemble a portfolio of assets to be sold during 2011 to raise more than £14 billion.

Lovegrove's appointment follows the recent addition of Stephen Trauber as head of global energy investment banking and vice-chairman, and Michael Jamieson, Jerry Schretter and Sam Pitts as managing directors in the oil and gas group based in Houston, Texas and New York.

International Power hires Asia ops CEO

The power generation company International Power has announced the appointment of Willem van Twembeke as chief executive for Asia. Twembeke replaces Ranald Spiers, who is taking early retirement, and will work from Bangkok, Thailand.

In his previous role, van Twembeke was chief operation officer for IPR-GDF Suez Latin America. He has experience across operations, trading and portfolio management. Van Twembeke joined the group in 1991 as contract and project manager at Tractebel Energy Engineering. In 1997 he was transferred to South America where he held executive positions in Chile and Peru. He was chief executive of Chilean electricity company Electroandina from 2001 to 2004 and chief executive of Gas Natural de Lima y Callao and Suez Energy Peru from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, he returned to Brussels as deputy general manager trading and portfolio management for Electrabel.

MOL group chief executive resigns



Gyorgy Mosonyi - MOL

Hungarian oil & gas company MOL announced on March 27 that György Mosonyi (left) has said he will resign as of April 30 as MOL's group chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. From May 1 the new group chief executive officer of MOL will be József Molnár (below), who has been the group chief financial officer since 2004.



Jozsef Molnar - MOL

The board of directors has made several senior appointment changes. The new group chief financial officer is József Simola, a member of MOL's executive board since 2006.

The new executive vice-president of the downstream division is Ferenc Horváth. The executive vice-president of exploration and production remains Zoltán Áldott. The strategy division will be integrated with the corporate business development division, to be led by Ábel Galácz as vice-president.

Choice Power Forms Northeast power desk

Choice Power, a division of interdealer broker OTC Global Holdings, announced on March 29 the creation of a Northeast Power desk in the US. The eight brokers on the team will specialise in wholesale fixed price power for regional transmission organisation PJM, the New England Power Pool (Nepool) and the New York Power Pool (NYPP) markets. The desk will be led by Andrew Gizienski and Kyle Schultz, both previously at IVG Energy. Also joining are Mike Feeley and Brian Vooletich from Choice Power, Howard Fishman from IVG Energy, Chris McQuade and Ken Malpeli from GFI Group and Lex Mills from Power Merchants Group. Formed in 2007, OTC Global Holdings is headquartered in Houston and New York, with other offices in Chicago, Jersey City, Louisville and London.

Osborne Clarke hires renewable specialist

European law firm Osborne Clarke has hired Clare King, a former Hogan Lovell's associate, to its UK-based renewable energy team. King specialises in advising businesses in the renewable energy sector on corporate, regulatory and commercial legal issues and will be based in the firm's London office. She is experienced in wind energy, offshore electricity transmission, tender processes, electricity contracts and government renewables incentives. David Ferris, head of energy and natural resources at Osborne Clarke says: "The complexities of renewables regulation, accreditation and compliance require increasingly specialist legal advice. Clare's arrival adds weight to our long-standing expertise in the market at a crucial time."

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