UK
Commodities traders expect big bonuses as hiring heats up
29 September 2009
After a period of relative inaction, hiring in the UK commodities sector is picking up once again. It might not be quite at the astronomical levels in Asia, but banks are still trying to lock in top talent in an attempt to stop them jumping ship for competitors with ambitious growth plans.
Nomura is the latest bank to unveil plans to expand into commodities, and Sociéte Générale says it's going to increase its commodities team by around 35% by the end of 2010. Credit Suisse also intends to add 100 commodities staff over 18 months and Standard Chartered wants to start trading on a spot basis next year.
What's more, Fortis has said it will recruit at least 10 traders to its UK commodities team and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley are all looking to add headcount in this sector.
"In the last two quarters we have seen increased appetite from new entrants," says Jakob Bloch, managing director of Commodity Appointments. "The energy mix remains the strongest. Most of the players in this space now follow a cross commodity trading strategy embracing power, gas, coal, freight, carbon and oil. However, outside energy we have also seen an increase in activities across the agricultural space."
It's becoming a lucrative sector to work in. Recently, BarCap was rumoured to have offered £30m to lure a commodities team away from JPMorgan, and $1m packages are increasingly common in the US and Asia.
But firms are working hard to keep hold of their commodities talent. "There are counter offers to most of the quality people trying to leave, even some two-year retention deals," says Paul Chrispin, partner, energy and commodities at Principal Search.
"For traders with P&L profiles suited to the current times – namely, low draw-downs and consistent profits – unsurprisingly those traders are looked after and locked in with various creative retention bonus schemes or loyalty schemes," adds Bloch.
But, last year, in spite of relatively bumper profits within banks' commodities divisions, bonus payouts were comparatively modest due to the firms' overriding problems.
"There is the feeling that banks do not have last year's excuses to pay down," says Chrispin.
What a rubbish, Banks retaining the rainmakers OK, but Barcap offering millions to lure a commodity team ? On Energy for example they are nearly dead on their activities this year.. no budget this year for even the smaller hires on the trading site.... and Fortis ? get a grip, they ve never been in and never will...... Those sort of articles made me think whether the main motivation is to expand the headhunters database by people reading this, feeling underpaid, and immediately send their cv
whatever 30 Sep 2009
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