JPMorgan nabs ex-Goldman banker in commodities push

By Michael Flaherty

HONG KONG (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) has hired former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker Oral Dawe as managing director and CEO of its Asia Pacific Commodities group as it steps up its commodities coverage in the resource-rich region.

New York-based JPMorgan has hired more than a dozen new bankers in Asia recently to oversee its expansion in areas such as energy and metals trading and marketing.

The move comes amid a broad push by investment banks to increase commodity coverage as prices of natural resources hover at record highs, with Asia a key focus of the build-up given the resources found across the region.

Dawe would be responsible for all aspects of JPMorgan's commodity business in the region including sales, trading and principal investing, the company said on Wednesday.

Dawe was at Goldman Sachs for 10 years, where most recently he was co-head of Asia Commodities and president of the Singapore office.

He will remain based in Singapore and will report to Blythe Masters, JPMorgan's global head of commodities.

"Organic growth, combined with the complementary capabilities of Bear Stearns' energy business, has created a world-class commodities platform and we are attracting the industry's most exceptional people," said Masters, referring to the bank's commodities expansion across Asia.

JPMorgan has agreed to purchase Bear Stearns BSC.N after Bear nearly collapsed from exposure to markets hit hard by the global credit crunch and investors' concerns it did not have enough capital to weather the storm.

JPMorgan said that last year alone it added more than 50 sales, trading and structuring professionals to its global commodities business.

JPMorgan recently hired Ouyang Xiuzhang, a managing director from Goldman Sachs, to head its Asia energy trading. The bank has also relocated its global head of Global Metal Marketing, Tim Wilson, from the UK to Singapore to focus on building out its Asia metals trading and marketing capability.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)