Sempra was an amazingly successful commodities trading organization in the 1990s and 2000s before forming a joint venture (being sold) with RBS in 2008. At one point, Sempra had 44-straight profitable quarters. I recently read a very interesting article about how newly-formed Freepoint Commodities, which launched its North American operations in March of 2011, is really a “restart” of Sempra. David Messer, the former CEO of Sempra, is the CEO of Freepoint. In addition, roughly two-thirds of Freepoint’s employees are former Sempra employees.
I particularly liked this quote by Mr. Messer: "We started trading in June and I think that's fairly remarkable to launch on March 1 and be trading 3 months later. I think that's testimony to the fact we've been able to reassemble a team that is highly experienced and has worked together. We're currently ahead of our plan."
I’ll add from a Triple Point perspective that’s it’s also important to choose the correct Commodity Management partner and solution. Triple Point was able to implement Freepoint’s platform quickly to support its business requirements and also provide the robust functionality to support Freepoint’s rapid growth plans into additional commodities across the globe.
Enjoy,
Michael