2024-04-09 22:05:05
13 billion dollars in net profits is what the energy trader Vitol earned in 2023. In this context of financial improvement, the number 1 private oil and gas trader has just confirmed its diversification into metals.
It was necessary to wait for Global Commodities Summit, organized this week by the Financial Times in Lausanne, for the Vitol group to publicly confirm what had been brewing for several months, namely its re-engagement in metal trading, an activity which it had finally given up around ten years ago.
Vitol leaves again today “ from zero » as his boss Russell Hardy says. To diversify, the energy giant has recruited an iron ore trader since last year and more recently the two managers of the metals unit of its rival Mercuria.
No major strategic shift
This is currently an entry ” modest “ in this activity, warns the number 1 in oil trading, who does not intend to change strategy with regard to the energy sector. Vitol nevertheless clearly displays its intention to participate in the “ exciting decade » which is coming to the world of metals.
The group was one of the rare oil traders of its size to no longer be involved in this market, recalls a trader based in Geneva. A transition seen as “ natural » in an environment which faces an increasingly strong reluctance on the part of the banking sector to finance fossil fuels.
2023, a year of record profits
More than others, Vitol has the means to deal with these reluctances thanks to its own funds but “ cannot, however, ignore the evolution of the banks’ positioning”notes our interlocutor who believes that “ by joining the metal traders’ club, Vitol is activating a plan B which may ultimately only be a plan C, the main thing being for the moment for the group to be once again present in the promising metals sector. metals “.
These new investments are largely facilitated today by Vitol’s exceptional profits over the last two years: 15 billion dollars in 2022 and 13 billion in 2023, according to the Financial Times. These profits also allowed the group based in Geneva and the Netherlands to acquire 35% of the Italian refiner Saras in February, and to position itself to buy the largest chain of service stations in South Africa.
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