Blythe Masters - 2010 Market Watch Article

Blythe Masters was quoted in this 2010 MarketWatch article, "Commodities Business Done, JPMorgan Will Expand Elsewhere":

"For J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., buying the global component of RBS Sempra Commodities amounts to taking one task off its to-do list.   

The bank's historic strength in investment banking had long been the fixed-income business--but several years ago, its managers started to beef up equities and commodities products and trading world wide to improve the standing of J.P. Morgan with large business clients. 

With capital at hand, J.P. Morgan will continue to expand, particularly in the cash equities business along the lines of Tuesday's deal." 

"This is the last piece of the commodities business that was missing" in a three-year process that basically started from scratch, said Blythe Masters, J.P. Morgan's head of Global Commodities, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires en route to Connecticut, where the operations J.P. Morgan is acquiring are based." 

"What we now have is a business that is complete globally, complete around asset classes" like power, gas, oil, and metals, "and complete in terms of both financial and physical services and products," Masters said.

Read the entire article here.

Blythe Masters Article: JP Morgan set to take on commodity giants with Sempra buyout

This January 2010 Business Daily Africa article detailing the purchase of RBS Sempra Commodities for an estimated $4 billion by JPMorgan Chase Commodities Business headed by Blythe Masters:

"For decades, two names have dominated the $4 trillion world of commodity and energy derivatives trading: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. If Wall Street power woman Blythe Masters has her way, a third will soon be making it a troika: JP Morgan."


"The former credit derivatives wunderkind who has built JP Morgan’s commodities business into a true global powerhouse in just three years is on the cusp of buying RBS Sempra Commodities for an estimated $4 billion, bringing an unusual but highly successful hybrid trading operation —one that carefully mixes customer-flow business with prop-trading risk — under the well-capitalised JP Morgan umbrella."

The article continues on to describe the full ramifications of the purchase, potential hurdles, and the like.

"It would be a career-crowning coup for British-born Masters, at 40 one of the most successful women on Wall Street"

"Masters, a Cambridge-educated derivatives expert and avid amateur horse rider, was drafted into commodities from the Chief Financial Officer role in early 2007 after JP Morgan’s first major foray into energy markets went awry."


Read the full article on Sempra Commodities acquisition here.

Blythe Masters on JPMorgan's EcoSecurities Buy

Blythe Masters was interviewed in this Reuters article about JPMorgan's purchase of EcoSecurities in 2009.  She stated that the purchase "was based on its large pre-2012 portfolio of carbon offsets (estimated in August at around 100 million tonnes), its post-2012 portfolio (around 125 million) and any upside associated with a surge in carbon prices."  

"Even if only the first source of value inherent in our valuation of the company, i.e. its pre-2012 portfolio, were the only thing to come forth we would end up being very happy with our acquisition," Masters said in an interview late on Monday....

Commenting on managing risk:

Masters said the acquisition would help JP Morgan clients better manage risks in fluctuating commodity prices. 

"The reason for our expanding in the carbon space is consistent with our overall thesis that commodity markets as a whole will continue to be extremely active and volatile ... as a function of economic activity and other policies," she said. 

"Carbon is just a part (of JP Morgan's business model), and an important component because of its linkages to the rest of the energy complex and to various regulatory changes going on." 

Masters said a new EcoSecurities CEO will be named soon, "and from there we will review the overall structure of the company to make sure we don't have any overlapping activities that are confusing to clients".

Read the full Blythe Masters EcoSecurities article here.