(Bloomberg) -- US energy trading firm Hartree Partners LP agreed to buy the commodities business of ED&F Man, a storied UK trader of raw materials that traces its history back more than 240 years.
Hartree has already acquired the majority of ED&F Man’s outstanding debt and is expected to complete the rest of the transaction in 2025, subject to regulatory approvals, Hartree said Friday in a statement. The deal includes ED&F Man’s three business units that trade sugar, coffee and liquid products such as molasses.
The acquisition of one of the most historic names in commodity trading by a relative newcomer is the latest sign of how a bonanza in energy profits during the past few years is reshaping the industry. Hartree, previously known as Hetco, has in recent years invested cash from its energy trading into a rapidly growing metals business and hired traders to handle in agriculture derivatives.
“This agreement marks the exciting first step in the expansion of Hartree’s global commodities platform into soft commodities,” Guy Merison, one of Hartree’s founding managing directors, said in the statement.
Separately, another commodity trading deal was announced Friday. Vitol Group, a major force in oil markets, agreed to buy the last remaining piece of fallen Asian commodity trader Noble.
ED&F Man, which once supplied rum to the Royal Navy, has been restructured in recent years, having sold non-core and under-performing assets, including its shipping and brokerage business and sugar mills in Mexico.
In 2022, ED&F Man got the green light to ring-fence its commodities business, separating it from the rest of the company. It said last year it had received “several unsolicited approaches,” and its talks with Hartree were first reported by Bloomberg in May.
Dutch lender Rabobank is supporting the Hartree deal and is amending and extending credit facilities provided to ED&F Man until March 31, 2026. ED&F Man’s businesses have “performed very well and delivered against their plan for growth” since the restructuring, the bank said in a statement.
(Updates with Hartree comment in fourth paragraph.)
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