Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of UK banking group Barclays, is to grow its commodities division almost 26% with the hire of up to 40 new staff.

Benoit de Vitry, head of Commodities at BarCap said he plans to add between 30 and 40 new staff this year to meet growing investor demand for commodities products. He said a large portion of the new hires would be in the US.