Trafigura Beheer BV, the world’s third-biggest oil trader, said it hired Christoph Gugelmann, Stefano Sabbadini and Philip Jan Kok for its Galena Asset Management unit to expand its commodity trade finance business. Gugelmann, Sabbadini and Kok, previously with Bank of America Corp. (BAC), will join as credit portfolio managers at Galena in Geneva which is seeking to double funds under management to $4 billion by the end of 2013, Trafigura said in a statement. The three people will be responsible for diversifying Trafigura’s funding sources to “liquidity rich but risk averse investors� such as pension funds, insurance companies, corporations and family trusts, according to the statement. They will also develop new investment vehicles with an initial target to raise $1 billion, to complement Galena’s Commodity Trade Finance fund, which averaged an annual return of 7.9 percent since inception, Trafigura said. The fund started in the third quarter of 2010. “By participating in the financing of commodity trading operations investors will be able to monetize the value of liquidity in a market that, until recently, has only been open to banks,� Pierre Lorinet, chief financial officer at Trafigura, said in the statement. “Notably this initiative will also provide distribution channels for those banks seeking to deleverage their balance sheets.� Gugelmann was previously head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa markets solutions Group at Bank of America, Trafigura said. Sabbadini was head of EMEA credit and funding structuring and Kok was head of Netherlands sales at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Kuo in London at pkuo2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at fkhan33@bloomberg.net

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