Koch Industries and the Royal Bank of Canada have formed astrategic alliance to jointly market energy-related trading andderivatives products to clients in North America andinternationally. The alliance is designed to provide the RoyalBank, which is one of the world’s top foreign exchange banks, with $30 billion/day in transactions, direct access to energy industryinformation and a broader array of energy derivative products, suchas weather derivatives. The deal gives Koch a connection to aworldwide collection of investment clientele. Royal Bank and itssubsidiaries serve 10 million clients through more than 1,500branches and offices located in 36 countries.

“[Koch] has an outstanding reputation and is a market leader inenergy and weather derivative products. These strengths, whencombined with our global foreign exchange operations, marketanalysis and financial engineering capabilities make for a strong,customer-focused partnership with a highly competitive productoffering,” said Royal Bank Chairman John Cleghorn.

The bank entered the commodity risk management business fouryears ago in a modest way and has been building slowly. Thisalliance gives it immediate access to a deeper range of energyinformation and derivative products, said a Royal Bank spokesman.”The depth of information you get from being allied with someonewho is in the market is invaluable. We expect to be able to provideour clients with finer pricing without risk to ourselves becausewe’re dealing with people who are right in the industry.”

A Koch spokeswoman added the two firms also plan to jointlyproduce daily energy market commentary and organize an annualenergy conference.

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