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Gunvor has publicly launched detailed monetary outcomes for the primary time, displaying the commodity dealer dealt with a document quantity of uncooked supplies within the first half of the yr amid robust demand for pure fuel and crude oil.
The privately owned group managed by billionaire Torbjorn Tornqvist stated in outcomes that its buying and selling volumes had risen 28 per cent yr on yr to 118m tonnes within the six months to June.
The figures counsel huge commodity merchants — a gaggle that additionally contains Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore and Mercuria — are well-positioned to benefit from the availability crunch that has gripped vitality markets and despatched fuel costs to document highs.
Gunvor cited elevated demand for gas as economies reopened after pandemic restrictions and “unusually chilly winter circumstances” in Asia and components of the US for the pick-up in volumes.
“Liquefied pure fuel (LNG) carried out strongly, benefiting from volatility and market dislocations and the pure fuel enterprise’s constructive efficiency continued through the interval,” Gunvor stated in its interim outcomes assertion. “Crude and core oil merchandise reported wholesome outcomes as effectively.”
For the reason that finish of Gunvor’s half-year, pure fuel costs in Europe have surged 120 per cent whereas LNG futures contracts in Asia have risen by the identical quantity. Crude oil, which may gain advantage from industries switching away from fuel, traded above $80 a barrel this week for the primary time in three years.
Geneva-based Gunvor, which says it’s the world’s largest unbiased dealer of LNG, has not beforehand launched detailed monetary info.
It made its half-year numbers out there late on Tuesday on Euronext Dublin following a bond situation this month. The corporate is searching for to diversify its sources of funding and lengthen the maturity of borrowings.
Commodity merchants sometimes depend on massive credit score traces from banks to finance their buying and selling actions. Various lenders, nevertheless, have pulled again from the sector following a string of scandals in Singapore that left them nursing huge losses.
Within the six months to June, Gunvor reported web earnings of $213.1m, down from $230.5m a yr earlier when the corporate reported document outcomes because it profited from storing low-cost crude oil and promoting it to the futures marketplace for larger costs.
It stated pure fuel and crude oil skilled essentially the most important progress within the first half of 2021, with buying and selling volumes rising 27 per cent and 77 per cent respectively. Revenues, which mirror larger commodity costs in addition to volumes, nearly doubled to $47bn.
Gunvor’s fairness elevated 13 per cent to $2.5bn on the finish of June. Tornqvist, who’s chair and chief govt, owns 87 per cent of the corporate.
Within the outcomes assertion, Gunvor additionally stated it was beneath investigation by the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee in relation to its actions in Ecuador.
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A former Gunvor worker turned agent pleaded guilty in a New York courtroom this yr to serving to funnel greater than $22m to Ecuadorean officers in trade for profitable contracts with state oil firm Petroecuador.
“In reference to the prevailing Division of Justice investigation in relation to Ecuador, the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee can also be conducting an investigation,” the corporate stated within the outcomes.
“Gunvor isn’t conscious of the total scope of the DoJ investigation. Accordingly, there may be no assurances concerning the route of the investigation.”
Gunvor and a few of its rivals have stopped utilizing brokers to win enterprise in resource-rich international locations the place corruption is commonly rife.
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