Gary Pettit, the UK chief executive of ED&F Man Capital Markets, has resigned from the role less than a month after the ED&F brokerage arm was reported to be in sales talks with rival Marex.

Pettit, who has been the UK chief executive of ED&F Man Capital Markets for nearly two years, resigned from that position in the middle of last month, according to sources. The move was announced internally earlier this week, according to the same sources.

A spokeswoman for ED&F Man Capital Markets said: “Gary Pettit joined ED&F Man Capital Markets in May 2015, becoming UK CEO in September 2020. He has since overseen the turnaround of the UK business, returning it to profitability.  He will leave the firm in October 2022 after seven years.  We wish him every success with his future endeavours.”

Pettit has been for years one of the top brokers at ED&F Man Capital Markets.

He joined the firm in early 2015 from UK inter-dealer broker Icap where he was the global head of financial futures and options until his departure in late 2014.

Pettit was pivotal in ED&F’s aggressive growth strategy that began in 2014 and included more than 20 former Icap brokers joining ED&F Man Capital Markets.

ED&F Man Capital Markets almost doubled its headcount in 2014 and early 2015 to some 110 staff.

Pettit was the firm’s commercial director initially before being promoted to UK chief executive in September 2020 to work closely with Chris Smith, the global CEO of ED&F Man Capital Markets.

Before joining ICAP, Pettit spent over 12 years at MF Global in various futures and options brokerage roles before rising to be that firm’s global head of financial futures and options.

At MF Global, Pettit worked with Smith who was the global chief operating officer and deputy chief executive of that firm until he joined ED&F Man in 2011.

Pettit also worked as a futures broker at Credit Agricole, on the Liffe floor for Refco and as a currency broker at Tullett & Tokyo, now TP ICAP.

Pettit’s resignation from ED&F Man Capital Markets is linked to sales talks that may see the broker bought by its rival Marex, as first reported by Bloomberg in early May.

ED&F Man Capital Markets has been seeking investment since 2020 when the firm submitted a scheme of arrangement to raise about $320 million (£240m) from creditors which the commodities group said would allow it to “continue with disposals in an orderly manner and not sell in a volatile market”.

More recently, ED&F Man Capital Markets emerged as a broker to Russian-owned trading firm Sova Capital that went into administration in March amid sanctions on Russian firms linked to the invasion of Ukraine.