Marex acquires soft commodity and structured product business, Volcap

Marex, previously known as Marex Spectron, has agreed to acquire Volcap Trading to further expand its structured products offering and commodities business.

Volcap was founded in 2015 as a soft commodity and bespoke structured product business that designs, structures and implements investment strategies across a wide range of financial assets.

Operating out of offices in London and Paris, Volcap’s 19 employees deal with an extensive network of corporate customers, private banks, asset managers, and family offices clients across Europe, Middle East, Asia, and the Americas.

Volcap will continue to trade under the Volcap brand and remain under the leadership of Nathan Van Paesschen and Gregory Spaenjaers.

Both firms expect to benefit from immediate synergies with the operations integrated directly into the existing Marex client platform.

Marex has made a series of acquisitions in the past months, including execution-only physical oil broker Starsupply, equity derivatives firm XFA in Chicago, recycled metals market-maker Tangent Trading in London, and equity volatility market maker, BIP Asset Management in Paris.

Ian Lowitt, CEO of Marex, commented: “Volcap will add to our softs offering and will be a good fit with our fast-growing structured products business, Marex Solutions, which has been an important success for the firm. This addition will not only diversify our earnings but will expand Marex into several new and interesting markets. It is a good example of acquiring an innovative, fast-growing, business that is straightforward to integrate and strengthens our overall client product offering.”

Nathan Van Paesschen co-founder and partner of Volcap, added: “By being part of Marex, we gain scale and new products. There are considerable opportunities to leverage the vast resources and relationships across the entire Marex network. We are excited to be a part of Marex’s growth story.”

Marex Spectron has decided to rebrand to Marex as simplifying the name and introducing a new logo is a clearer reflection of today’s wider business mix. The new website, marex.com, was launched earlier this month.

The former name dates back to 2011, when Marex acquired Spectron, the OTC energy broker. The business has since vastly increased in scale, scope, and headcount, with multiple new offerings and business lines.

The firm has most recently acquired Starsupply, a leading Rotterdam-based broker of physical oil products, as it expands its presence in specialist commodity markets.

This move follows other successful transactions completed over the past year that have included, equity derivatives firm XFA in Chicago, recycled metals market-maker Tangent Trading in London, and equity volatility market maker, BIP Asset Management in Paris.

Marex has also demonstrated success in growing acquired firms with, for example, Marquee Oil, a fuel oil physical broker which was acquired in December 2019 almost doubling its 2020 revenue under Marex’s stewardship.