Gunvor has publicly launched detailed financial outcomes for the first time, exhibiting the commodity supplier handled a file amount of raw provides inside the first half of the 12 months amid sturdy demand for pure gasoline and crude oil.
The privately owned group managed by billionaire Torbjorn Tornqvist acknowledged in outcomes that its shopping for and promoting volumes had risen 28 per cent 12 months on 12 months to 118m tonnes inside the six months to June.
The figures suggest huge commodity retailers — a bunch that moreover consists of Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore and Mercuria — are well-positioned to learn from the supply crunch that has gripped vitality markets and despatched gasoline prices to file highs.
Gunvor cited elevated demand for fuel as economies reopened after pandemic restrictions and “unusually chilly winter circumstances” in Asia and elements of the US for the pick-up in volumes.
“Liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) carried out strongly, benefiting from volatility and market dislocations and the pure gasoline enterprise’s optimistic effectivity continued by way of the interval,” Gunvor acknowledged in its interim outcomes assertion. “Crude and core oil merchandise reported healthful outcomes as properly.”
Given that end of Gunvor’s half-year, pure gasoline prices in Europe have surged 120 per cent whereas LNG futures contracts in Asia have risen by the similar amount. Crude oil, which can profit from industries switching away from gasoline, traded above $80 a barrel this week for the first time in three years.
Geneva-based Gunvor, which says it’s the world’s biggest neutral supplier of LNG, has not beforehand launched detailed financial data.
It made its half-year numbers on the market late on Tuesday on Euronext Dublin following a bond drawback this month. The company is trying to find to diversify its sources of funding and lengthen the maturity of borrowings.
Commodity retailers generally rely upon huge credit score rating traces from banks to finance their shopping for and promoting actions. Quite a lot of lenders, however, have pulled once more from the sector following a string of scandals in Singapore that left them nursing huge losses.
Throughout the six months to June, Gunvor reported internet income of $213.1m, down from $230.5m a 12 months earlier when the company reported file outcomes as a result of it profited from storing low price crude oil and selling it to the futures market for elevated prices.
It acknowledged pure gasoline and crude oil expert in all probability crucial improvement inside the first half of 2021, with shopping for and promoting volumes rising 27 per cent and 77 per cent respectively. Revenues, which mirror elevated commodity prices along with volumes, almost doubled to $47bn.
Gunvor’s equity elevated 13 per cent to $2.5bn on the end of June. Tornqvist, who’s chair and chief authorities, owns 87 per cent of the company.
Throughout the outcomes assertion, Gunvor moreover acknowledged it was beneath investigation by the US Commodity Futures Shopping for and promoting Payment in relation to its actions in Ecuador.
A former Gunvor employee turned agent pleaded guilty in a New York courtroom docket this 12 months to serving to funnel higher than $22m to Ecuadorean officers in change for worthwhile contracts with state oil agency Petroecuador.
“In reference to the current Division of Justice investigation in relation to Ecuador, the US Commodity Futures Shopping for and promoting Payment can be conducting an investigation,” the company acknowledged inside the outcomes.
“Gunvor isn’t aware of the entire scope of the DoJ investigation. Accordingly, there could also be no assurances regarding the route of the investigation.”
Gunvor and some of its rivals have stopped using brokers to win enterprise in resource-rich nations the place corruption is often rife.
https://www.ft.com/content material materials/ef990a36-9a92-4515-aa65-62b6e9fb2e76 | Gunvor reveals file shopping for and promoting volumes in unusual public launch
