Ex-Macquarie star trader O’Kane finds Swiss home

Former Macquarie commodities boss Nick O’Kane is likely to go head to head against the investment bank where he built his career.

The former head of Macquarie's commodities business Nick O’Kane is off to a rival trading house.

Former Macquarie star commodities trader Nick O’Kane will go head to head against his former boss Shemara Wikramanayake after joining Swiss energy trading house Mercuria in a senior role.

Mr O’Kane will head up Mercuria’s gas and power portfolio, according to separate unsourced reports in the Financial Times and Bloomberg. Details of the appointment, rumoured in the market for weeks, have not been finalised and Mercuria did not respond to The Australian’s request to comment.

The move will likely see Mr O’Kane based in Dubai amid moves by Mercuria to grow its gas and power trading operations in Asia, likely facing off against Macquarie.

It represents a double blow for the millionaire’s factory: losing its star trader who will now be looking to snatch business from one of the bank’s most lucrative profit drivers while working for a direct competitor.

Investors will be watching to see if Mr O’Kane tries to lure any of Macquarie’s trading teams across to his new employer.

On UBS numbers the commodities business has grown five times since 2016, while last year it delivered 48 per cent of Macquarie’s pre-tax earnings.

The veteran commodities trader, who made headlines for his $170m pay packer over six years, greater than even Ms Wikramanayake who runs the investment bank, announced he would leave Macquarie in early February.

Mr O’Kane’s departure was noted by several market watchers as a major moment for the trader, who has spent 28 years at the bank, with analysts noting his loss put into question the broader performance of the Commodities and Global Markets business.

Macquarie left guidance for the commodities business unchanged at its latest results briefing in February, noting it was enjoying positive performance across all industries and was sitting on $6.7bn in asset finance and loans.

Macquarie last month announced that Mr O’Kane will be replaced by three-decade banking veteran and forex specialist Simon Wright, who heads up the financial markets division in the commodities unit.

Mr O’Kane rose to prominence after last year being paid $58m at Macquarie as head of commodities, in a move which saw several shareholder groups take potshots at the bank at its annual general meeting in July last year.

The bonus windfall came about after the trading boss oversaw a surge in Macquarie’s profits given its dominant trading position in European energy markets that were jammed up as a result of the Ukraine-Russia war.

Ms Wikramanayake announced Mr O’Kane’s exit at the investment bank’s quarterly update earlier this month, saying he was leaving to pursue other opportunities.

At the time the Macquarie chief said he “made a massive concrete impact” building up the bank’s commodities business around the world.

Geneva-based Mercuria was founded by Swiss traders Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi in 2004 to become one of the key traders across Europe.

Mercuria snapped up JP Morgan’s physical commodities trading business in 2014, in a $US800m deal which was originally slated to see the Swiss firm snap up the American investment bank’s metals trading business before being pulled.

The Cyprus-domiciled trading firm is privately held, but boasted more than $US170bn ($257bn) in revenue across its markets.

Mercuria reported $US2.98bn in net income in the 2022 financial year, with the trading firm increasingly growing its carbon credits arm alongside oil, gas, and power.

The yet-to-be-announced appointment will be widely seen as a succession planning move although it was said there were no plans for Mr Dunand and Mr Jaeggi to step back from the business.

Like Macquarie, Mercuria also invests in physical assets from energy storage and transportation underpin its trading book.

Mercuria has a regional office based in Singapore, and has an office in Melbourne trading energy commodities. It has recently started a carbon trading desk in Australia. It also has operations across the US.