Enron Restructures Metals Division

Enron Corp., the largest natural gas and electricity trading house in the United States, has completed a restructuring of its metals division and shed an unspecified number of staff, the company said on Thursday.

"Following the acquisition of MG plc, a restructuring of the metals business was carried out in order to combine the skills of the different entities, maximize efficiencies and strengthen competencies in core business areas," Enron Europe said in a statement.

"As well as seeing some staff departures, changes have included a relocation of departments, internal reallocation of positions and a number of new appointments," it said.

Earlier on Thursday, European traders cited market talk of staff departures at London-based Enron Metals, although the numbers involved were still unclear.

A company spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the restructuring or staff movements.

Houston-based Enron announced its purchase of MG Plc, a leading independent international metals dealing firm in London, in May 2000.

Before that, MG had bought the business activities of Rudolf Wolff & Co -- one of the founding members of the London Metal Exchange (LME) -- and taken over Billiton Metals Ltd.

"With the integration process now complete, Enron Metals looks forward to further growth," the Enron statement said.

Rudolf Wolff also had a soft commodities brokerage business to trade coffee, cocoa and sugar on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). Enron announced the closure of that business operation last month.

Enron Metals is a business unit within Enron Europe, the company's wholesale merchant business spanning all commodities in Europe, Australia and Japan.

In recent years, Enron has used internet technology to expand into myriad commodity markets and its EnronOnline trading platform at www.enrononline.com .

As of mid-May the notional value of all transactions via the system exceeded $590 billion. Reuters