By Florence Tan and Amy Lv
SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) -Energy and commodities trader BGN is building a metals trading desk, the Turkish firm said on Tuesday, in a bid to expand business into minerals essential for the energy transition.
BGN, a privately owned energy trading group with more than 80 years of history, is known for trading liquefied petroleum gas and chemicals.
“As part of our strategic growth plans, BGN is establishing a metals trading desk, which will be centred in Geneva and led by a head of metals trading for the BGN Group,” said Wael Amer, chief commercial officer at BGN, in a statement.
Amer, however, did not elaborate details regarding the size of the metals team and the metals to be added on the trading portfolio in the statement.
This came after Chief Executive Officer Ruya Bayegan said last month the company aimed to expand the business into markets supplying fuels and minerals essential for the energy transition.
Daniel Yu, formerly from Squarepoint trading group, will join the company in December as head of metals Asia in Singapore, according to the statement.
Yu will be looking after base metals and battery materials, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter on condition of anonymity as the information is private.
BGN did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
BGN is not the first energy trader expanding into metals. Peers such as Mercuria and Gunvor have delved into metals, betting structural changes in global energy systems will prove lucrative.
(Reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Amy Lv in Beijing; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
