Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) appointed Greg Agran and Magid Shenouda as co-heads of commodities trading, according to a company memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The memo, dated Oct. 18, was confirmed today by Sophie Bullock, a company spokeswoman based in London. Agran and Shenouda are based in New York and London, respectively. They replace Jeffrey Resnick, global head of commodities trading, who decided to retire at the end of this year after 18 years at the Wall Street firm, the memo said. Goldman Sachs generated $3.6 billion of revenue from its commodities business in 2006 and $3.4 billion in 2007, according to documents released this year by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Goldman likely has a 15 percent to 20 percent market share in commodities, which generated industry revenue of $6 billion to $7 billion last year, according to estimates from Glenn Schorr, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in New York. Agran is currently head of U.S. natural gas and power trading and head of global commodities principal investing. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1991 as an analyst in New York and was named managing director in 1999 and partner in 2006, according to the memo. Shenouda is the bank’s head of European crude oil and products trading and European gas and power trading. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as a vice president in London, after working as a physical fuel oil trader at independent energy trader Trafigura Beheer BV. He was responsible for expanding Goldman’s physical commodities business, including expanding its coal, freight, and emissions franchise, the memo said. He was promoted to managing director in 2005. Goldman Sachs competes with other banks in commodities, including Morgan Stanley (MS), which also has a 15 to 20 percent market share, according to Schorr at Nomura. To contact the reporter on this story: Lars Paulsson in London at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

Source