SocGen swoops for Jefferies futures client portfolio

Societe Generale has reached an agreement with Jefferies Group to take over the bulk of the latter’s futures client portfolio.

In a confirmation following the close of markets on Thursday, France’s second-largest bank by market capitalisation said most of the clients of Jefferies’ Bache futures unit would be transferred over to it. Additionally, Jefferies said it would be closing down rest of the futures business.

However, neither party disclosed financial details of the agreement or whether there are likely to be any potential job losses. For Jefferies, it marks the closure of an expensive foray into the commodities market, having bought Bache from Prudential Financial in 2011 for $430m.

On the other hand, it expands SocGen’s commodities market footprint further with the move coming barely months after it purchased an industrial metals portfolio from Barclays.

In a separate development, Jefferies announced its intention to acquire Faros Trading, a subsidiary of FXCM, the foreign exchange trading firm it bailed out in January.

While financial details were not revealed, Jefferies said it would merge its existing foreign exchange business with Faros and that it’s chief executive, Ray Kamrath, will take the office of Jefferies’s global head of foreign exchange.