Commoditrade Inc. plans to introduce an energy hedge fund in the fourth quarter, complementing a fund that invests in industrial metals. The new fund will use the relative-value strategy followed by the metals fund, Chief Executive Officer David Phipps said yesterday in a phone interview. He declined to comment on the performance of the metals fund, the AMCO Commodity Fund, which Georgetown, Grand Cayman-based Commoditrade bought in February. Commoditrade and competitors are opening energy funds as oil futures listed in New York rebound from the worst slump ever. Galena Asset Management Ltd. started an energy hedge fund this month that it said may expand to more than $1 billion. Andrew Serotta, who worked for Vitol Group, aims to raise $100 million for an oil hedge fund called Logista Capital. “Energy is the largest commodity market, with a significant number of products that suit a relative-value strategy,” said Phipps, 45, who formerly worked at ABN Amro Bank NV and UBS AG. “It has good overlap with other markets -- for example, with biofuels and sugar.” A relative-value fund aims to profit from changes in prices of different commodities or multiple contracts of a single commodity. For example, a fund might buy copper while selling aluminum or purchase crude for September delivery and sell the December contract. More Traders Kristofer Tremaine and Chetan Shah, former energy traders for Hess Energy Trading Co. and Credit Suisse Group, respectively, will run the new fund initially, according to Phipps. Commoditrade aims to hire more traders for the fund, he said. London-based Galena’s fund is led by former Morgan Stanley trader Claude Lixi. The AMCO Commodity Fund, which has about $70 million under management, was founded by Keiron Mathias and Chris Adams and started trading non-ferrous metals in May 2006. Oil futures have rallied 48 percent this year on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, accounting for 40 percent of global crude supply, decided yesterday to keep production quotas unchanged, anticipating a recovery in demand toward the end of the year. Crude for July delivery gained $1.04, or 1.6 percent, to $66.12 a barrel on Nymex at 2:12 p.m. London time. Oil is heading for its biggest monthly advance in a decade after adding 23 percent in the past three months. Energy Brokerage Commoditrade aims to start a brokerage service for energy as well as emissions and agricultural products including coffee, cocoa and sugar, said Phipps. He headed ABN Amro’s commodities team for almost 10 years until UBS bought the bank’s futures business in October 2006, after which he was co-head of commodities at UBS through January 2008. Commoditrade went public in London in 2005. The shares rose 0.25 penny, or 3.3 percent, to 7.75 pence at 12:33 p.m. local time today, giving the company a market value of 27 million pounds, and have added 35 percent this year. London-based BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd., which oversees about $12 billion, is the main investor with a 27 percent stake.

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