AMBR.L Regulatory News (AMBR)

14 Jun 2007 07:01

Ambrian Capital PLC14 June 2007 Ambrian Capital plc Expansion of Ambrian Commodities Ambrian Capital plc, the AIM-quoted investment bank, announces that is it issignificantly expanding its commodities trading business, in order to meet thegrowing demand of metals, energy and agriculture investors in what is a thrivingcommodities market. In response to the rapid growth of the business to date, Ambrian CommoditiesLimited ("Ambrian Commodities" or "the Company"), a wholly owned subsidiary ofAmbrian Capital plc, is substantially increasing its metals sales team with theappointment of Mike Baker, Michael O'Sullivan and Don Fraser. These newappointments will strengthen Ambrian Commodities' presence in the metals marketand will help to further increase the Company's fast growing client base. Ambrian Commodities has also made an additional appointment to its softcommodities team in order to expand its existing offer to cover cocoa and coffeetrading. Mike Baker offers an expert understanding of the London Metal Exchange ("LME")and its application in hedging price risk, having been both a customer of themarket and a senior account executive at two LME brokers. During his 25 yearcareer, Mr. Baker has traded physical metals with Cargill, BIT and LN Metals,and managed the associated LME hedging books. He has also worked at LMEring-dealers, Societe Generale, and the Mocatta Group, where he was responsiblefor creating and implementing hedging models for clients, including severalEuropean smelters. Mike is a former member of the LME Lead and Zinc Committees. Don Fraser has over 20 years' of LME brokerage experience having spent 12 yearsat Lehman Brothers Commodities and 7 years at Sogemin Metals, subsequentlyNatexis Bank, producing hedging strategies and developing their fund brokeragebusiness. Michael O'Sullivan has worked in the LME brokerage business for over 30 years,spending 15 years with Rudolf Wolff and Co. as an Account Executive, two ofwhich were located in Singapore. He spent a further 15 years at Sogemin,latterly Natexis Bank, where he continued to focus on the Far Eastern market.Mr. O'Sullivan has an extensive customer base within the Chinese and South EastAsian markets and covering all LME traded products. Jeff Cooper has been appointed as Head Cocoa and Coffee Trader and will launchAmbrian Commodities' trading services in both of these exciting markets. Mr.Cooper is a senior trader with over 30 years' of experience in soft commodities,most recently working in futures market trading for Man Agricultural Group. Mr.Cooper will be working alongside Jonathan Boyden, who joined Ambrian Commoditiesfrom Tate & Lyle in January of this year to head up the sugar tradingactivities. Malcolm Freeman, Managing Director of Ambrian Commodities, comments "I wouldlike to take this opportunity to welcome the new members of our metals tradingteam, each of whom has broad experience covering a wide product base within themetals markets. Their appointment will further strengthen the already solidexpertise of our metals trading team. "I am also pleased with the commencement of cocoa and coffee trading at AmbrianCommodities, as this is a natural progression following the launch of sugartrading in January of this year. It is challenging to find people with the rightlevel of experience in the soft commodities market, so we are delighted to haveattracted a senior trader of the calibre of Jeff Cooper." Tom Gaffney, Chief Executive of Ambrian Capital plc, comments "We are delightedwith the rapid development of our commodities trading business, which is now acore profit contributor to Ambrian Capital. The expansion of the metals team isan exciting progression for Ambrian Commodities and we look forward to expandingour presence in the market. Additionally, the commencement of coffee and cocoatrading is an excellent step forward and we will continue to launch new productsin order to satisfy demand. We believe that the fundamentals fuelling growth inthe metals markets are still strong and we aim to capitalise on increasinginvestor interest in this area." About Ambrian Capital plc Ambrian Capital plc is an AIM-quoted independent investment bank involved in themining, oil and gas, alternative energy, bio-energy, soft commodities andtechnology sectors. Ambrian Capital has three wholly-owned subsidiaries:Ambrian Partners Limited, a corporate finance advisor and stockbroker; AmbrianCommodities Limited, an Associate Member of The London Metal Exchange and abroker-dealer of LME traded metals, precious metals, carbon credits and softcommodities; and Ambrian Asset Management Limited, a specialist investmentmanagement business. Further information about the Group is available on Ambrian Capital's website:www.ambrian.com. Enquiries: Tom Gaffney Tel: +44 (0) 20 7776 6411Chief Executive, Ambrian Capital plc Malcolm Freeman Tel: +44 (0) 20 7776 6481Managing Director, Ambrian Commodities Justine Howarth/Louise Goodeve Tel: +44 (0) 20 7851 7480Parkgreen Communications This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange