GFI's Asia head of oil broking departs

It has emerged that Jeremy Searle left his post as Asia head of oil broking at interdealer broker GFI in Singapore in December, but it is unknown what his next move will be.

The departure followed the March 2008 purchase of Spectron - a UK-based energy broker with which GFI had an Asian joint venture - by Oslo-based commodity derivatives platform Imarex.

In Asia, Spectron brokers crude oil and environmental products and also has offices in Europe, the US and Canada. After the takeover by Imarex and subsequent break-up of the GFI-Spectron JV, Searle had been looking at the emissions business and other projects for GFI, says a source at the broker.

Other staff also left GFI following the Spectron acquisition, but the source would not give any names.