Gunvor has publicly launched detailed monetary outcomes for the primary time, exhibiting the commodity dealer dealt with a report quantity of uncooked supplies within the first half of the yr amid robust demand for pure gasoline and crude oil.
The privately owned group managed by billionaire Torbjorn Tornqvist mentioned 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 large commodity merchants — a bunch that additionally contains Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore and Mercuria — are well-positioned to benefit from the availability crunch that has gripped power markets and despatched gasoline costs to report highs.
Gunvor cited elevated demand for gasoline 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 gasoline (LNG) carried out strongly, benefiting from volatility and market dislocations and the pure gasoline enterprise’s optimistic efficiency continued through the interval,” Gunvor mentioned 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 gasoline 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 gasoline, traded above $80 a barrel this week for the primary time in three years.
Geneva-based Gunvor, which says it’s the world’s greatest impartial dealer of LNG, has not beforehand launched detailed monetary data.
It made its half-year numbers accessible late on Tuesday on Euronext Dublin following a bond situation this month. The corporate is in search of to diversify its sources of funding and lengthen the maturity of borrowings.
Commodity merchants usually depend on giant credit score strains from banks to finance their buying and selling actions. Various lenders, nonetheless, have pulled again from the sector following a string of scandals in Singapore that left them nursing large losses.
Within the six months to June, Gunvor reported web revenue of $213.1m, down from $230.5m a yr earlier when the corporate reported report outcomes because it profited from storing low cost crude oil and promoting it to the futures marketplace for increased costs.
It mentioned pure gasoline and crude oil skilled essentially the most vital progress within the first half of 2021, with buying and selling volumes rising 27 per cent and 77 per cent respectively. Revenues, which mirror increased commodity costs in addition to volumes, virtually doubled to $47bn.
Gunvor’s fairness elevated 13 per cent to $2.5bn on the finish of June. Tornqvist, who’s chair and chief government, owns 87 per cent of the corporate.
Within the outcomes assertion, Gunvor additionally mentioned it was below investigation by the US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee in relation to its actions in Ecuador.
A former Gunvor worker turned agent pleaded guilty in a New York court docket 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 mentioned within the outcomes.
“Gunvor will not be conscious of the total scope of the DoJ investigation. Accordingly, there may be no assurances concerning the course of the investigation.”
Gunvor and a few of its rivals have stopped utilizing brokers to win enterprise in resource-rich nations the place corruption is commonly rife.
