NEWS & MEDIA

Shard Capital expands team with new Commodities Partner

25 February 2019

Shard Capital, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ashley Boolell as Partner to strengthen its existing team and establish a Commodity Hedging proposition.

Shard Capital’s commodities business serves commodity consumers and producers looking to hedge their price exposure. These range from small caps looking to lock their budgeted prices over an established period of time to large corporations with a dynamic hedging policy.

Ashley has in-depth knowledge of commodity markets, extensive experience working with a diverse portfolio of European corporate clients and is skilled in business development. His core expertise lies in providing hedging solutions to commodity end-users and producers while tailoring his services to meet their specific needs.  Prior to joining Shard Capital, Ashley spent 12 years working in Commodity Derivatives Sales at the French investment bank Natixis, working in Paris for seven years before moving to London in 2013.

As part of Shard Capital’s expansion into the commodity market, it has formed a strategic partnership with Marex Solutions, part of Marex Spectron, the major commodity broker based in London which was created to provide tailored OTC hedging solutions to commodity end-users and producers as opposed to standardised exchange-traded hedging instruments.

Marex Solutions was built as an alternative to traditional hedging counterparties and is composed of very skilled traders who blend their market marking ability with a novel competitive edge in technology. It is, de facto, the first Fintech to emerge within the commodity hedging space.

Ashley has quickly plugged his skills to Shard Capital and closed a first trade earlier this month, thereby confirming the business opportunity provided by the commodity markets. The trade was carried out with a French Mid-Cap looking to hedge its copper exposure on a commercial contract.

CEO Toby Raincock said: “We have seen a real exodus of traditional financial players – mainly banks – from the commodity sector since 2012.  In recognition of the changing landscape, Shard Capital has been building out its team of highly experienced commodity experts and developing a sophisticated offering that seeks to fill the space left behind.

“We are delighted to welcome Ashley to the team as he brings a wealth of experience that will prove instrumental in growing our commodity hedging services which are now an integral part of our business. Furthermore, our strategic partnership with Marex Solutions creates efficiencies, which eliminate the pitfalls faced by banks and other traditional financial counterparties offering commodity hedging services.”

To read more about Commodities at Shard Capital, please visit www.shardcapital.com/capital-markets/commodities

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