Publication

This paper evaluates the extent of Commodity Trading House financialization during the period 2004-13 looking at the top 10 trading houses through the lens of five indicators: relations to capital markets; leverage; asset composition; structure of corporate activities and returns; and types of merger and acquisition activity. It finds that financialization is a weaker and more diffuse trend for the majority of the top 10 trading houses which remain in private ownership. Moreover, financialization indicators peak around 2008 and seemingly decline during the second half of the period.