France: GDF SUEZ Forms Energy Trading Unit

GDF SUEZ announces the creation of GDF SUEZ Trading, a fully owned GDF SUEZ subsidiary, operating on energy markets. GDF SUEZ Trading will start to operate on the markets as of the 2nd of May 2011.

GDF SUEZ Trading’s mission is to accompany the Group’s entities in the optimization of their asset portfolio (gas and power production, transmission or storage capacities…) by providing physical and financial hedging. The subsidiary also designs and implements risk management solutions for energy price fluctuations for GDF SUEZ’s business lines as well as their clients. It aims to continue developing its own commercial activities, through its market service offerings to all types of market participants, from upstream to downstream.

The Group’s new subsidiary, whose trading professionals number nearly 400, has allocated capital resources of 1 billion Euros.

Asset trading has become a crucial link in the value chain of integrated energy providers, in a context marked by energy markets’ integration, price volatility and increasingly faster cycles. With this new entity combining Gaselys and Electrabel’s 10-year long experience, the Group has a unique knowledge and expertise in physical and financial trading across the entire energy mix: natural gas, electricity, oil and refined products, coal and environmental products.

For Jean-François Cirelli, Vice Chairman and President of GDF SUEZ and Chairman of GDF SUEZ Trading’s board of directors, “The unification of GDF SUEZ’s European trading entities marks an important milestone in the Group’s integration. GDF SUEZ Trading has a great role to play in contributing, in the most efficient way, to the value creation of all our energy businesses and to respond to our customers’ needs. Considering its presence in the markets and its proven trading capabilities, we want GDF SUEZ Trading to be a very significant player in Europe and beyond”.

GDF SUEZ initiated in 2010 the unification project of the trading activities conducted within Gaselys and Electrabel, with the ambition to give rise to a European leader with a global footprint. GDF SUEZ Trading’s development will be pursued through Paris and Brussels trading platforms, and further relayed through an expanded local presence in Europe and across the world.

Possessing bank status, GDF SUEZ Trading operates under the supervision of the French (ACP) and Belgian (FSMA) banking authorities, thus guaranteeing the highest standards in terms of risk control, best practices in the application of banking standards, and regulatory capital adequacy in relation to commitments.

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Source: GDF SUEZ, April 29, 2011;