Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Commodity trading rationalisation

19 March 2014: J.P. Morgan has agreed to sell its commodities-trading business to Switzerland-based energy-trading company Mercuria Energy, according to a person familiar with the situation. The terms of the deal aren't yet clear, but when the bank first opened its books to potential buyers in October it valued the assets at $3.3 billion. The deal, which is expected to be completed in the summer, is the largest ever by Mercuria, a closely held company founded in 2004 by Swiss traders Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi that is relatively unknown outside the physical commodities trading industry. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303802104579448533840087064?mod=djemalertMARKET

Is This the End for Blythe Masters?
Now that JPMorgan's physical commodities unit has been sold, what will become of its leader, the woman who oh by the way created credit default swaps?
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-19/is-this-the-end-for-jpmorgans-blythe-masters?campaign_id=DN032014;   Mercuria, based in Geneva, was founded in 2004 by two former roommates and Goldman Sachsalumni and grew to become the world’s fourth-largest commodity trader, taking in $100 billion in revenue in 2013. (More details are likely to be found in my friend Kate Kelly’s forthcoming book, The Secret Club That Runs The World: Inside the Fraternity of Commodity Traders).

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