Merrill Lynch completes Entergy-Koch takeover

Merrill Lynch today completed its acquisition of Entergy-Koch Trading (EKT), a venture created by New Orleans-based energy company Entergy Corporation and Kansas-based Koch Industries.

The energy trading business will operate as Merrill Lynch’s global commodities group, a unit of the global markets and investment banking group. The EKT management team will continue to run the business.

EKT has not divulged the value of the sale, although David Trone, an analyst at financial group Prudential Financial, has valued the business at around $1 billion. EKT’s natural gas pipeline and storage business is not included in the transaction, but the joint venture is offering it for sale.

The purchase marks the latest in a series of attempts by Merrill Lynch to re-enter the energy trading market. The bank relaunched its energy desk last year, hiring Scott Kerson, formerly head of commodity marketing for the Americas at Deutsche Bank in New York, to head energy marketing.

And Kuljinder Chase, previously head of energy trading at Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy, joined Merrill in May 2003 as head of its natural gas and oil trading business.