Pinnacle Asset Management, a commodities and natural resources investment organisation, has acquired the North American natural gas wholesale trading business from Sierentz Global Merchants.
Ben Sutton, who most recently served as Head of North American Gas and Power at Noble Americas Corp, will serve as CEO of the new business, which will be known as Six One Commodities.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Jason M Kellman, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Pinnacle, says: “The natural gas and power markets are entering a period of significant market dislocation and volatility. The addition of a fully-operational natural gas and power wholesale trading business enables Pinnacle to hit the ground running as we continue to build out our diversified, global, physical commodity merchant platform. Moreover, we are excited to partner with Ben Sutton and his talented team, who have a demonstrated history of building businesses and have deep experience investing across North American natural gas and power markets.”
Sutton brings more than 15 years of natural gas, power trading and marketing experience, as well as proven leadership capabilities to Six One Commodities. Prior to working at Noble, he held senior roles at RBS Sempra Commodities and Shell. While at Noble, he built their physical natural gas and power merchant division, which was acquired by Mercuria Investments US, Inc in 2017. At Six One Commodities,Sutton will be joined by a team of senior leaders from across the industry, including Brian O’Hara as Head of Trading, Dan Ryng, Chris Gradel as Traders and Kelly Bezas as Head of Operations.
Sutton adds: “On behalf of the Six One Commodities team, we are thrilled with the acquisition and partnership with Pinnacle at this exciting time in the firm’s growth as we seek to identify and capture the numerous market opportunities in front of us. Pinnacle has built an institutional commodities investment platform and we look forward to identifying attractive opportunities in a dynamic sector.”
In addition to its core commodities trading expertise, Pinnacle continues to demonstrate its leadership and commitment to its physical commodities merchant businesses. In 2015, Pinnacle backed London based Concord Resources Limited, one of the world’s largest non-ferrous metals merchants, run by Mark Hansen, the former global head of Noble Group’s metals division. In 2018, Pinnacle acquired Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, the world’s largest cattle feeding operation, from JBS USA.
