Elliott Management Wants Hess to Jettison Trading Unit, FT Says

Elliott Management Corp., which holds a 4 percent stake in Hess Corp., said the oil company should spin off its partly owned trading arm, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Elliott Management disclosed its interest last month in Hess and is urging the company to jettison Hetco Energy Trading Co., founded in 1997 by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. traders Stephen Hendel and Stephen Simliz, the FT reported.

“What is the strategic purpose of an upstream company running a hedge fund? Hess should clearly exit this business and focus on its upstream operations,” the FT quoted Quentin Koffey, an Elliott associate portfolio manager, as saying.

Hess helped fund the inception of Hetco and has a 50 percent voting interest, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net