Credit Suisse First Boston hired Benoit Vallieres, a Northeast power trader at Citigroup in New York, as a director in the fixed-income derivatives division to trade power and energy. He will help build the firm's New York commodities trading desk, which will focus on North American natural gas and power, said spokesman Pen Pendleton, who would not elaborate on what products the desk will trade.
CSFB is in the process of staffing the commodities desk, but Pendleton declined to say how many traders it will recruit. He said the desk, which will focus on customer accounts, plans to begin trading power and energy in the first half of this year. Pendleton described the initiative as part of CSFB's bid to get back into commodities.
Vallieres said he joined CSFB because he found its plans for commodities appealing, but he declined to detail specifics. He reports to Carl Bautista and Guillaume Malle, co-heads of the commodities trading desk in New York. Bautista referred calls to the CSFB spokesman and Malle could not be reached for comment. Citigroup meanwhile is in the process of moving many of its natural gas and power traders to Houston. Joe Toussaint, head of the Houston desk, declined comment.
