July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc plans to hire about 20 commodities traders in the next year in a further expansion of its securities unit following the acquisition of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s North American operations.

“Commodities is a rapidly developing market that is experiencing increasing amounts of interest and growth,” said Roger Jones, co-head of commodities at Barclays Capital securities unit, in an interview in London. The bank is “focused on remaining a top tier” provider, he added.

Last month, Barclays President Robert Diamond said he plans to build the “premier investment bank” and is hiring in equities and adding mergers and acquisitions advisers. Barclays, partly assisted by the Lehman acquisition, increased the commodities unit to 320 people at the beginning of the year, across sales, agriculture, and in physical oil trading, the bank said. It had 240 workers a year earlier.

The planned expansion comes after Barclays agreed to sell its Barclays Global Investors asset management unit to BlackRock Inc. for $13.5 billion. The bank has avoided government control during the credit crisis, unlike rivals including Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

Barclays in 2002 hired about 25 traders from Enron Corp. in what at the time was one of the biggest bets by a British bank on the U.K.’s natural gas and electricity markets.

The bank in May sold the first United Nations emission credits from a World Bank fund created to help developing nations adapt to climate change. That month Norway also said it hired Barclays to help sell 12.7 million European Union emission allowances this year.

Barclays plans to hire as many as 65 bankers for its European mergers advisory business this year and about 300 people for European and Asia equities by the end of 2009, the company said in May.

The bank gained 1.1 percent to 296 pence in London trading, valuing Barclays at 32.6 billion pounds ($52.6 billion). The stock has gained 93 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jon Menon in London at jmenon1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 7, 2009 11:50 EDT