Stanchart eyes to expand in coal, palm and sugar

By Sambit Mohanty

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Standard Chartered Bank (STAN.L) plans to expand coal trading operations by hiring more people this year and will aim to start physical trading in the commodity by next year, a senior bank official said on Wednesday.

The bank, which is "cautiously optimistic" on a rebound in commodity and energy prices in the months ahead, is also drawing up plans to boost its presence in sugar and palm oil as investors' interest in those commodities surge, said Sean Mulhearn, the bank's global head of commodity sales.

"We are certainly looking to expand our coal business this year," Mulhearn told Reuters in an interview. "In the energy sector, the first physical market we will be moving into will be coal. We are more likely to be trading in 2010, not 2009."

The bank, which started its commodities business three years ago, now has a global commodities and energy team of 50 people offering commodity-linked financing and structured products in precious metals, base metals, energy and farm products.

The bank last year hired Arun Murthy, former Asia head of Lehman Brothers' commodities team in Singapore, as its new global head of energy, and a few more ex-Lehman Brothers traders.

"The perfect storm in financial markets has created opportunities for us and has helped us to hire some of the best talent in the industry. This will help us to grow our business."

"We are looking to add more resources in Singapore, Dubai and China to meet our growing customer needs across various commodities," he added.

Mulhearn said the bank had tripled its customer base in 2008 from 2007 and is hoping to grow that by 100 percent this year.