US$1m packages ‘easy to get’ as commodities demand explodes
Bloomberg 15 September 2009
(SINGAPORE) Global banks are engaged in a hiring boom for commodity traders as they add staff to benefit from surging metals and energy prices, offering US$1 million packages for top employees, recruiters Robert Walters Plc said.
There’s ‘huge demand for physical traders’, Gary Lai, manager of financial services at Robert Walters in Singapore, said yesterday in an interview. ‘For top traders, especially investment bank traders, US$1 million is not unexpected, it’s easy to get,’ Mr. Lai said, referring to salaries and bonuses combined.
Banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch are competing for commodity staff in Asia to increase trading revenues and attract clients’ funds. Citigroup wanted ‘new blood’ for its Asian team and was seeking to expand at a double-digit pace, Ananth Doraswamy, regional head of commodities, said last month.
‘The reason why people are hiring again is because of anticipation that demand will come back as the world economy is starting to recover,’ Mr. Lai, 33, told Bloomberg. ‘I can show you that top traders can easily get Ferraris.’
Robert Walters has handled about 100 commodity-related hires in Singapore and Hong Kong this year, said Mr. Lai, who joined the firm in 2004. ‘There’s a commodity hiring boom from a lot of banks as well as pure commodity firms,’ he said. That compares with about 200 cases in all of 2007 before the 2008 in commodity prices, he said.
Commodities as measured by the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index have jumped 29 per cent this year, exceeding the 22 per cent gain in the MSCI World Index of stocks. Crude oil futures in New York have advanced 53 per cent, while gold has surged to within about 2 per cent of its record of US$1,032.70 an ounce.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired five executives including Peter Beaumont, formerly from UBS, for Asia-Pacific commodities, according to a Sept 1 statement. JPMorgan Chase hired seven bankers and traders to boost its commodity business, according to an internal memo confirmed by JPMorgan spokeswoman Marie Cheung. Societe Generale plans to expand its commodities team about 35 per cent by the end of next year.
‘A lot of people are going to like commodities rather than equities and other financials,’ said Mr. Lai. Investments in commodity products advanced to US$2.63 billion last month, at least double the amount recorded for any August, according to a Sept 10 report from Barclays Capital.
Asia’s influence on commodity markets ‘is a long-term trend that will likely continue’, Oral Dawe, chief executive officer of the Asia-Pacific commodities group at JPMorgan Chase, said last week. China ‘has a big impact on actual demand for commodities,’ Mr. Dawe said.
China, the world’s biggest metals user, will expand 8.5 per cent in 2010, after growth of 7.5 per cent this year, helping pull the world out of the worst recession in six decades, according to forecasts from the International Monetary Fund.
Goldman Sachs Group raised forecasts for most industrial metals as the recovery in the world economy cuts spare capacity, according to a report e-mailed Sept 8. Copper, the bank’s top pick, will climb to US$7,650 a metric tonne by the end of 2010, the report said. The metal traded yesterday at US$6,199\. \-- Bloomberg
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Global banks binge on commodity traders
US$1m packages ‘easy to get’ as commodities demand explodes
Bloomberg
15 September 2009
(SINGAPORE) Global banks are engaged in a hiring boom for commodity traders as they add staff to benefit from surging metals and energy prices, offering US$1 million packages for top employees, recruiters Robert Walters Plc said.
There’s ‘huge demand for physical traders’, Gary Lai, manager of financial services at Robert Walters in Singapore, said yesterday in an interview. ‘For top traders, especially investment bank traders, US$1 million is not unexpected, it’s easy to get,’ Mr. Lai said, referring to salaries and bonuses combined.
Banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch are competing for commodity staff in Asia to increase trading revenues and attract clients’ funds. Citigroup wanted ‘new blood’ for its Asian team and was seeking to expand at a double-digit pace, Ananth Doraswamy, regional head of commodities, said last month.
‘The reason why people are hiring again is because of anticipation that demand will come back as the world economy is starting to recover,’ Mr. Lai, 33, told Bloomberg. ‘I can show you that top traders can easily get Ferraris.’
Robert Walters has handled about 100 commodity-related hires in Singapore and Hong Kong this year, said Mr. Lai, who joined the firm in 2004. ‘There’s a commodity hiring boom from a lot of banks as well as pure commodity firms,’ he said. That compares with about 200 cases in all of 2007 before the 2008 in commodity prices, he said.
Commodities as measured by the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index have jumped 29 per cent this year, exceeding the 22 per cent gain in the MSCI World Index of stocks. Crude oil futures in New York have advanced 53 per cent, while gold has surged to within about 2 per cent of its record of US$1,032.70 an ounce.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired five executives including Peter Beaumont, formerly from UBS, for Asia-Pacific commodities, according to a Sept 1 statement. JPMorgan Chase hired seven bankers and traders to boost its commodity business, according to an internal memo confirmed by JPMorgan spokeswoman Marie Cheung. Societe Generale plans to expand its commodities team about 35 per cent by the end of next year.
‘A lot of people are going to like commodities rather than equities and other financials,’ said Mr. Lai. Investments in commodity products advanced to US$2.63 billion last month, at least double the amount recorded for any August, according to a Sept 10 report from Barclays Capital.
Asia’s influence on commodity markets ‘is a long-term trend that will likely continue’, Oral Dawe, chief executive officer of the Asia-Pacific commodities group at JPMorgan Chase, said last week. China ‘has a big impact on actual demand for commodities,’ Mr. Dawe said.
China, the world’s biggest metals user, will expand 8.5 per cent in 2010, after growth of 7.5 per cent this year, helping pull the world out of the worst recession in six decades, according to forecasts from the International Monetary Fund.
Goldman Sachs Group raised forecasts for most industrial metals as the recovery in the world economy cuts spare capacity, according to a report e-mailed Sept 8. Copper, the bank’s top pick, will climb to US$7,650 a metric tonne by the end of 2010, the report said. The metal traded yesterday at US$6,199\. \-- Bloomberg
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