Clients

Over an 18 month period, we provided subject matter expertise and operational support on the design and development of a new coal futures contract. This work included:

• Together with the client staff, developing the key contract specifications (i.e. nomination process, storage allocations, delivery timetable; stockpile procedures; contract penalties etc);
• Leading the initial drafting of proposed commercial (as opposed to legal) Heads of Terms;
• Supporting globalCOAL in meetings with the prospective futures exchange and key market stakeholders; and
• Providing operational support to the globalCOAL project manager on a range of implementation and launch issues.

In addition, we supported and provided subject matter expertise to the trading workstream in the development of the Blueprint for the future commercial and trading function. This work included:

• Process Design: “Greenfield” design of all key front, middle and back office trading and commercial processes in light of corporate objectives and strategy;
• Organisational Design: Structuring and sizing of the “To-Be” trading and commercial organisation (both business and support functions) in light of cost cutting interventions.

We supported globalCoal in the development of a new product to minimise the risk of default during the delivery phase for physical coal. In particular, we worked on the initial concept and design development, as well as analysis of the market potential given other available to other physical coal participants (e.g. Letters of Credit).