London 08/10/2015 - This week has seen a series of departures in the base metals team at Hong Kong-listed trading house Noble, with at least five senior physical traders being let go, FastMarkets understands.
Scott Evans and Jeff Romanek in the Connecticut office, as well as David Freeland, Paul Wilkes (known as Monty) and Erik Bay Gundersen in London have all left the company, several industry sources said.
The news follow rumours last month that Noble was carrying out a review of the metals division with the view of optimising the business.
The company has now decided to cut costs and reallocate its capital away from markets such as copper and zinc into its core business such as alumina and aluminium, a source told FastMarkets.
Noble declined to comment on the move and the traders named above could not be reached.
All of Noble's aluminium traders remain at the company with the exception of Erik Bay Gundersen, who is believed to be leaving for personal reasons. Global head of aluminium Raj Kapoor, as well as traders Lucy Winchell and John Lyons, are still working for the company in the US.
Noble's head of metals in London, Mark Hansen, also remains at the firm but there are questions marks over some traders in Singapore.
The company is believed to have made significant losses in physical aluminium trading this year after premiums fell 80 percent since the start of January but one source said the losses had been "[wiped off] the slate".
Noble tried to expand in copper, lead and zinc in 2013 when it recruited David Freeland and Scott Evans from Goldman Sachs. But the company's balance sheet plans will no longer focus on this area, a source explained.
In March this year, Noble surprised the market by cancelling nearly 100,000 tonnes of lead stocks from LME-registered warehouses to move the metal into fresh rent deals in South Korea. Most in the market said the deal made little to no money and was not worth the subsequent scrutiny from the LME.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)