Signposts: Carlyle, Louis Bacon to Buy Majority of Metals Trader Traxys Group

From Reuters:

Carlyle Group, along with other investors, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in metals trader Traxys Group, in the latest move by the U.S. private equity firm to boost its presence in commodities as big banks scale back.

Carlyle will buy the stake along with affiliates of investor Louis Bacon and Traxys management for an undisclosed sum from private equity firm Pegasus Capital Advisors, Kelso & Co and Resource Capital Funds.

The acquisition comes at a time when large banks such as JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG are pulling the plug on physical commodities trading amid increasing government scrutiny and dwindling margins as demand from top importer China slows.

This is opening up opportunities for trading houses and private equity firms to snap up established assets that offer them a quick foothold in top markets.

Morgan Stanley sold the majority of its global physical oil trading operations to Russian state-run oil major Rosneft in December.

Traxys is a physical metals and minerals commodity merchant, logistics and trading firm with annual turnover of more than $6 billion, according to the joint statement from the companies....MORE