Commodity trading giant Trafigura has reported a net profit of $2.759 billion for the financial year ending 30 September 2024.
In a statement sent to Bunkerspot today (13 December), Trafigura said that the results ‘reflected strong contributions’ from its core divisions: Oil and Petroleum Products; Metals, Minerals and Bulk Commodities; and Gas, Power and Renewables – as well as Shipping and Chartering.
The group’s revenue was flat year-on-year (y-oy) at $243.202 billion, as lower commodity prices were offset by higher trading volumes.
The underlying EBITDA fell 36% y-o-y to $8.089 billion from $12.686 billion in the prior year period, which Trafigura attributed to a 'return to more normalised market conditions'.
At an average of 6.8 million barrels a day (b/d), Trafigura’s total traded volumes of oil and petroleum products, including natural gas and LNG, were around 8% above the previous year’s level. The increase was mainly driven by higher crude oil, gasoil and LPG volumes.
However, Trafigura added that the ‘strong underlying performance of the business’ was ‘marred’ by the ‘extremely disappointing discovery of serious misconduct’ by individuals in its Mongolian oil business. The incident involved deliberate manipulation of data and documents and concealment of overdue receivables.
‘The wrongdoing in Mongolia was uncovered as a result of increased scrutiny in recent years,’ Trafigura commented. ‘This work is being significantly built on and extended as a matter of urgency, to review, test and improve end-to-end control framework, systems, risk and governance structures. Remedial actions will be subject to external assurance, reporting to the Audit Committee.’
Trafigura ended today’s statement by confirming that Richard Holtum will take on his new role as Chief Executive on 1 January.
Jeremy Weir, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trafigura, who will become Chairman of Trafigura’s Board from 1 January, commented: ‘I would like to extend my congratulations to Richard on his appointment. I am confident that he is the right leader to drive Trafigura forward and further build on the Group’s success. These changes mark the transition to a new generation of leaders at the helm of the business.’
