Big bonuses return for Europe energy traders as prices rally

Bloomberg

After a few years of roughly stable payouts for many of Europe’s energy traders, big bonuses are back for the cream of the crop.
The best traders in natural gas to power can look forward to handsome rewards after navigating markets that last year sparked to life with more bullish trends and a good dose of volatility. More people than previously will enter the seven-figure bracket, according to recruiters surveyed by Bloomberg.
Expectations across the board is for about 20 percent more in compensation compared with the previous year. And the best are looking at a total pay in the range of $2.5 million to $3 million or more, according to Peter Henry, managing director at H.W. Anderson Ltd., who has hired for utilities, banks and trading houses for more than a decade.
Last year’s price surge was to a large extent driven by a revival in the carbon market as regulators tightened supply. The cost of permits tripled, beating all other major commodities, and sent power prices surging. Companies from Gunvor Group Ltd., one of the largest independent oil traders, to Citadel LLC are expanding again or returning to the market after the industry retrenched with the lull in prices that followed the last financial crisis.
“The market has been good with the right type of volatility and clear trends,” said Jonathan Funnell, head of gas and power at recruitment firm Proco Commodities Ltd., which lists Trafigura Group Ltd. and PetroChina Co. as clients. “The carbon rally has had a knock-on effect for power and the whole fuels complex. Good traders should have been able to make money.”
The surge in prices could continue this year. BloombergNEF said that carbon futures could triple, which would spur further gains in other markets, including electricity. German benchmark power contracts jumped 44 percent last year, the most on record.
The bullish trends made the markets more interesting again for the biggest trading houses, as well as hedge funds. That means more hiring of staff from utilities, which for some are the springboard to a career in trading. And they are not the only ones in demand, experienced analysts are also highly sought after.
Traders tempted to leave utilities could be “young professionals who haven’t yet had a big pay day,” said Henry. “They do want to test themselves and it often comes after a good year.” Profit at Electricite de France SA’s trading unit in London jumped 74 percent to 633 million euros ($721 million) last year after the company turned the market volatility to its advantage. Proprietary trading at Swedish utility Vattenfall AB is “performing really well,” Chief Financial Officer Anna Borg said on a conference call, declining to be more specific.
Traders in the liquefied natural gas market also “had a good year” in 2018, said Peder Bjorland, vice president at Norway’s biggest energy company Equinor ASA. Prices jumped to the highest in four years, while activity in both the physical and futures markets soared.
But all markets moves were not fundamental. Trade wars and sanctions had “a massive impact” on commodity markets, and that created some big winners and losers, said Douglas Ferguson, managing director at Kariba Search in Singapore.
“Although most traders wouldn’t dare to admit it, a lot of their 2018 profit was generated more by luck than skill,” Ferguson said.
More active markets, coupled with the general trend toward electrification and the shift away from fossil fuels have meant that trading houses are increasingly looking to diversify beyond oil, their staple commodity for decades.