Goldman loses co-head of commodity trade Shenouda: memo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS) global commodities co-head Magid Shenouda is leaving after 14 years at the bank, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, the Wall Street firm's second senior-level departure in as many weeks.

London-based Shenouda, who has run the commodities business for the past two years alongside New York-based Greg Agran, had been credited with helping build out Goldman's physical energy trading franchise - a part of the bank that is under intense political and regulatory scrutiny in the United States.

Shenouda's departure came just a week after the reported retirement of Peter O'Hagan, who was global head of commodities sales. The bank named two people to replace him, with Colleen Foster heading sales in the Americas and Martin Wiwen-Nilsson running operations in Europe and Asia, website SparkSpread reported earlier.

Goldman's storied J Aron commodity division, a century-old enterprise that the bank has said is "core" to its business, long has been considered one of the most coveted employers in the commodities business, with vast global operations.

Goldman President Gary Cohn ran J Aron for a period in the 1990s, and Isabelle Ealet - who is now co-head of the securities division - was in charge for much of the 2000s. It has about 250 employees.

But it now faces unprecedented regulatory pressure amid allegations that its metals warehousing business may have inflated aluminum prices. The Federal Reserve is considering ways to pull back Wall Street's deep involvement in raw material markets, including the ownership of assets.

At the same time, revenues at Goldman and other banks have been shrinking. Overall commodities revenues fell in 2012 to $600 million from a record $4.5 billion in 2009, according to its SEC filings. Goldman said the numbers do not fully reflect the way it runs its business.

Shenouda joined Goldman in 1999 from privately held Swiss-based commodity trading house Trafigura, where he traded fuel oil. He went on to run Goldman's European crude oil and products trading business, as well as European power and gas. He was made partner at the bank in 2008, the memo said.

"He has been responsible for driving several key acquisitions, as well as the expansion of our business activities into new regions and products, including the build-out of our Energy, Coal, Freight and Emissions franchise," the co-heads of the securities division, Ealet and Pablo Salame.

Shenouda's plans were not immediately known. The departure was first reported by SparkSpread.

(Reporting by Jonathan Leff; Editing by Gary Hill and Richard Chang)