Metallgesellschaft

Metallgesellschaft AG was incorporated in Frankfurt am Main in 1881 by Wilhelm Ralph Merton, his father Ralph Merton, and Leo Ellinger. Merton was responsible for business strategy, Ellinger for operations, and a cousin of Merton, Zachary Hochschild, for marketing and international activities. Their main competitors were the two other large metal trading companies of Germany: Aron Hirsch & Sohn in Halberstadt, and Beer, Sondheimer & Co in Frankfurt am Main. Although Metallgesellschaft was a joint stock company, it was operated like a family business with key positions allocated to long-time loyal employees who were gradually rewarded with stock in the company. In 1889, on the recommendation of chemist Clemens Winkler, chemist Curt Netto accepted a post as head of the technical department. Metallgesellschaft was more diversified than its two main competitors who traded solely in copper, lead, and zinc while Metallgesellschaft also traded aluminum, nickel, and pyrite. The company became more involved internationally as Europe became more reliant on imported metals. In 1884, Metallgesellschaft sent Berthold Hochschild, brother of Zachary Hochschild, to the United States to establish an operation. In 1887, the American Metal Company was incorporated as a joint stock company in New York with 51% Metallgesellschaft ownership so as to facilitate local decision-making; Metallgesellschaft executive Jacob Langeloth was named its president.

In 1989 Michael Farmer, Baron Farmer formed the Metal & Commodity Company Ltd trading company, a subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft AG, which became the world’s largest trader in physical copper and nickel, and he was its CEO from 1989-2000. In 1999 the company went public as it was floated on the London Stock Exchange under the title MG Plc with Farmer as its co-CEO; it was the first metals trader to be listed on the exchange. In 2000 he sold it to trading company Enron for $448 million, and Enron renamed it Enron Metals (in 2002, Enron sold the firm, which is now called Sempra Metals, and based in London).