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LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Brazilian investment bank GrupoBTG Pactual SA will step up its expansion incommodities and add about 100 more staff in London, a personfamiliar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The Sao Paulo-based bank already has about 100 staff in theBritish capital and has taken another floor at its office there,which will serve as its commodities arm's headquarters.
The roughly 100 additional employees will mostly work incommodities, although the company is also expected to continueexpanding in asset management and investment banking, the sourcesaid.
The bank, controlled by billionaire financier André Esteves,has this year made a bold push into the global commodity marketsjust as other banks bow out, betting it can avoid the regulatorypressure rattling rivals.
U.S. lawmakers and regulators have stepped up scrutiny ofWall Street's giants over their physical commodity operations,forcing banks including Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan to pull out or shrink their commodities business.
But privately owned BTG Pactual has forged ahead with a $300million-plus expansion plan that has taken the industry bystorm. It hired former Noble Group chief executive RicardoLeiman to lead the drive and hired traders, managers andanalysts in London, Geneva and New York to cover everything fromfreight to grains to natural gas.
The bank sees opportunities to grab business left by rivalsand to build on its strong position in Brazil, one of theworld's major commodities countries.
BTG declined to comment.
Its expansion stands out in an industry that has seenattrition from big banks over the past several years as firmshave been squeezed by lower margins, higher capital requirementsand growing political and regulatory scrutiny of the role ofbanks in the natural resources supply chain.
Deutsche Bank had been one of the top five banks incommodities but this month pulled the plug on the tradingbusiness, cutting 200 jobs.
Smaller player UBS had already pulled back, and bigcommodities rivals JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are in theprocess of selling out from commodities trading. Barclays has cut its division by a fifth.
BTG Pactual, formed in 2009 when Esteves' Bank and TradingGroup acquired UBS Pactual, is branching out as part of abroader push to diversify its revenue base, which is mostlydriven by its trading unit and asset management business.
