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MTX Capital Services – commodity trading partner Written by: Luděk Vokáč, photography by: Barbora Mráčková
MTX Capital Services is one of the newest companies in MTX Group. Established in 2020, it specializes in commodity derivatives trading. MTX Capital Services sets prices of raw materials for other companies in our group. After obtaining a license from the Czech National Bank, it will do the same for external customers, too.
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ETALIMEX used to carry out this activity in the past, but the responsibility has now been transferred to MTX Capital Services, with the ambition of primarily supplying these services to external clients outside of the group. “The idea was that because of the trading volume and since we have experience in this field, we can take over these services from METALIMEX and let them concentrate on trading with physical commodities,” says Ondřej Hamer, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors and the brains behind this idea. However, Hamer says it is no easy feat. “Without a license, we can only hedge commodities for our group, which is what METALIMEX has been doing so far. But to supply these services to external clients, we need a license from a regulator, i.e., the Czech National Bank,” Hamer explains, adding the company applied for the license shortly after its establishment in July of 2020. “Obtaining this license is a complicated process; granting it is fully within the hands of the CNB. If they see any obstacles in our company, they will not grant us the license,” Hamer comments. The regulator must thoroughly examine the company and even go through the qualifications of individual employees or assess if they have enough time to do their jobs. “Asking the CNB to grant a license to someone who is wearing two hats, so to speak, would be pointless. We would not get it,” Hamer says. Currently, MTX Capital Services has a dozen employees and plans to hire more. In addition to having suitable human capital, the licensing process also evaluates business plans for the upcoming three years or strategies for saving the company in case of a market collapse. “We had to comply with numerous regulations, provide an enormous number of documents, and we are obliged to report our activities in detail,”
