ETF Securities Ltd (ETFS), a global provider in Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) and German Issuer of Exchange Traded Commodities, has expanded its sales team with the key appointments of Nigel Longley, who takes the role of Sales Director responsible for the German and Austrian markets. This appointment reflects the rapid growth of ETF Securities business in Germany and Austria. ETF Securities is the leading Issuer of Exchange Traded Commodities. ETCs now account for over $500m assets under management in Germany and Austria.
Nigel Longley was previously Head of Corporate Broking at Commerzbank based in Frankfurt with responsibility for a team of five professionals covering German “Mittelstand” (small-/medium-sized) companies. Previous to that he spent 20 years advising international institutional investors on the German equity market for Deutsche Bank & Credit Agricole Cheuvreux among others.
Nigel joins Tim Harvey and Michael Geister as dedicated representatives covering the German and Austrian markets. This is a timely recruitment due to the recent listing of the 66 Short and Leveraged ETCs which are now available on the Deutsche Brse’s XTF segment.
The launch of this new range of ETCs on Deutsche Brse is in response to the strong interest from investors who wish to implement different investment strategies using ETCs. Currently Deutsche Brse’s XTF segment is by far the largest ETF market place in Europe and accounts for over 40% of total European trading volume in exchange-traded funds.
ETF Securities have also recruited Rachel Kersey-Brown to the UK & Ireland sales team as a Sales Associate. Rachel Kersey-Brown previously worked in private and structured finance. Rachel holds a BSc Hons degree from Leeds University.
ETF Securities now offers more than 120 ETCs which give investors greater choice to implement different investment strategies with the choice of physical, long, forward, leveraged and short exposure to a wide range of commodity sectors. ETCs are simple to access as they are traded in three currencies (Euros, USD and Sterling) and listed on five major European Exchanges including the London Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris, Euronext Amsterdam, Deutsche Borse and Borsa Italiana. Each Exchange has created unique ETC trading segments resulting in trading volumes exploding by 500% to between $600 and $800 million per week. ETF Securities now has over $5.9 billion in assets, up from $1bn in June 2007.
“Gathering $5.9bn in assets in such a short time is simply staggering. It clearly shows that ETF Securities has developed the right products at the right time. We are very excited by this growth,” says Hector McNeil, head of Sales and Marketing, ETF Securities.
“Nigel Longley is a key hire for ETF Securities. He brings a wealth of sales and marketing and commodities experience to the teams. These hires show our commitment to the German and Austrian, markets where we have significant take up of ETCs across all investor classes. Nigel has a superb background having worked at a very senior level for over 20 years in Frankfurt. We believe the German speaking sales team is the best sales team of any Issuer,” adds McNeil.