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Freepoint grows merchant finance group
Freepoint Commodities is expanding its merchant finance business with two hires in its Stamford, Conn., head office and one in London.
The new hires include Marc Fontaine, former head of commodity derivatives for the Americas at BNP Paribas in New York; and Ayesha Choudhury, previously a director within Deutsche Bank’s commodities division in New York.
Meanwhile, Ian Muir, an oil originator covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Deutsche Bank in London, is also set to join Freepoint.
The trio is set to join Freepoint in March and will report to Brian Cumming, global head of structured commodity finance, SparkSpread has learned.
At BNP Paribas, Fontaine regional head of commodities, responsible for managing a diversified market-making platform with a core focus on energy clients in North America.
Over a 17-year career with BNP Paribas, Fontaine held a variety of roles that also included head of energy marketing for the Americas and global head of energy marketing.
Before joining Paribas in 1996, Fontaine worked for Phibro Energy/Philipp Brothers, one of the largest global traders of physical commodities in the 1980s.
Starting in 1984, Fontaine was responsible for chemical fertilizer and base metals trading, and thereafter was a vice president in energy marketing.
Choudhury spent eight years with Deutsche’s commodity structuring team in London and then New York, where she originated, structured and executed a variety of transactions across investor products, risk management and structured financings.
She primarily focused on the oil and agriculture sectors.
Prior to Deutsche, Muir held several senior commodity roles in trading, structuring and sales, with AIG Trading, BNP Paribas and Sempra Energy Trading.
He also previously worked in credit structuring at XL Energy.