https://buff.ly . They are buying and selling oil. Two decades ago, Chinese farmers fed their pigs just about anything they could lay their hands on. The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. In 1972 Cargill came under attack as it secretly sold millions of tonnes of wheat to Russia, using a U.S. export subsidy program to boot -- and boosting food inflation. Investors can forget about buying shares in the wildly profitable, family-run firm any time soon. Shortly after the material was dumped, thousands of residents of the city of Abidjan complained of illnesses, including breathing problems, skin irritation and related ailments. Glencores flotation has sparked speculation about a possible Vitol initial public offering and what it would be worth. U.S. and European regulators are cracking down on big banks and hedge funds that speculate in raw goods, but trading firms remain largely untouched. Geography isnt the sole focus of expansion -- it has moved into naphtha, LPG and wood pellets. Founded in 2004, Mercuria Energy Trading is one of the world's biggest independent energy traders . Heres a look at the 16 companies, with aggregate revenues of $1.1 trillion, that trade energy, metals and agriculture. How big are the biggest trading houses? You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Jankielewicz and Smolokowskis company, J+S Group, traded Russian crude oil and was a leading supplier of oil to PKN Orlen, Polands top oil refiner. . Design by Andrew Colby. Their reach is expanding. Or this: publicity-shy Vitols sales of $195 billion in 2010 were twice those at Apple Inc. As well as the 200 tankers it has at sea, Vitol owns storage tanks on five continents. In less than a decade, Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi have turned a 10-person company supplying oil to a pair of Polish refineries into the world's fourth-largest commodity trader with revenue topping $100 billion last year. The payout percentage of profits at the commodities houses can be double what Wall Street banks pay, says George Stein of New York headhunting firm Commodity Talent. The winner? Cargill has since placed a moratorium on buying soybeans from newly deforested land. Like Vitol, he says, Gunvor has no plans to follow Glencore into an IPO. The sort of position that has allowed Vitol to do a brisk oil business with the U.S. government, the besieged Syrian regime, and Libyas newly empowered rebels simultaneously over the past few months. The grains business accounts for a third of its earnings and could have a value of more than $5 billion. Founded 25 years ago by Briton Richard Elman, the Hong Kong-based, Singapore-listed Noble Group buys and sells everything from Brazilian sugar to Australian coal. Youve always had grain going down the river and going through the Gulf and being exported. Olympique Marseille is at a crossroads, she told supporters in a statement to announce the changes at the club. At times Cargills power has got it into trouble. There has always been some concern about the trading firms influence, said Craig Pirrong, a finance professor and commodities specialist at the University of Houston, who points out that some firms have been associated with allegations of market manipulation. In 2006 a tanker it chartered dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast, allegedly making thousands ill and killing up to 16. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and named after Mercury, the god of merchants, Mercurias business straddles global energy markets. In metals, stock in warehouses can be tied up for years as loan collateral, allowing the same traders who dominate the metals market to control a huge chunk of world supply -- an apparent conflict of interest that has drawn criticism from the UK parliament. (Bloomberg) In less than a decade, Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi have turned a 10-person company supplying oil to a pair of Polish refineries into the worlds fourth-largest commodity trader with revenue topping $100 billion last year. Brent crude rose 3.5 percent that year in a fourth annual advance. Thats still a lot less than the billions the biggest independent oil traders make and a long way off the revenue of Marquard & Bahls oil tanking division, the second largest in the world after Vopak. Founded in 1974 by Marc Rich, who fell foul of U.S. authorities but was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton, Glencore has assets spanning the globe and an oil division with more ships than Britains Royal Navy. Switzerland-based Glencore, whose initial public offering (IPO) in May put trading houses in the spotlight, pays some traders yearly bonuses in the tens of millions. In a 2009 State Department cable from Yemen, obtained by WikiLeaks and provided by a third party to Reuters, sources told U.S. diplomats that the company used intimidation tactics including kidnapping threats to buy Yemeni crude at below market prices. Founded in 1818 in Amsterdam, the company is the worlds No.1 oilseed processor. The companies dispute the charges. Noble quit its global liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) operations in 2010, a year it was censured in Nigeria for discrepancies in gasoline shipping lists. 3. In a May interview with Reuters, Fredriksen refuted the charges and shot back that maybe they (U.S. regulators) are trying to get some revenge for the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Enuit Hiring, Growing, and Focused on Next Version, Energy One Sees Early Success in 24 by 7 Services Market. The companys largest shareholder is now former coal trader and Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg, an intense and charismatic South African who holds a stake of just under 16 percent, worth around 4.5 billion pounds at current prices. A small Minnesota linseed crushing business more than a century ago, the firm is now is so big its financial performance is often viewed as a barometer of agribusiness as a whole. During your trial you will have complete digital access to FT.com with everything in both of our Standard Digital and Premium Digital packages. You can still enjoy your subscription until the end of your current billing period. Sometimes you get it wrong, but you have to accept it, he said. Thats equal to the combined oil exports of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. But ADMs reputation has endured a black eye or two over the years. Result: Chinas pigs are heavier than ever and Bunge has become a key supplier to one of the fastest growing economies in the world. 100% Granted (3 out of 3) 0% Denied ( out of 3) 0% Withdrawn ( out of 3) 0% Certified-Withdrawn ( out of 3) This data was calculated using publicly sourced data from OFLC Performance Data. But it was absolutely one of the greatest moves in the business.. That gives banks who trade futures cause for concern, but since physical players usually receive exemptions to limits -- because they are categorized as bona fide hedgers -- trading firms should go unscathed. After a newspaper interview he wrote an open letter in 2008 headlined Gunvor, Putin and me: the truth about a Russian oil trader. It focused initially on shipping fuel oil cargoes to the mainland, a relationship that has since deepened. NEW YORK (Reuters)- For the small club of companies who trade the food, fuels and metals that keep the world running, the last decade has been sensational. Together, Glencore employees, including many of its top traders, own just under 80 percent of the company. While pursuing Robert Louis-Dreyfus passion for the club, which drained millions from his fortune, she has placed strict conditions on new investment. 03.10.2014. In his only media interview, with Reuters in 2006, Lim credited his success to investment in his tanker armada -- the secret weapon that helped him set up stealthy and profitable deals in the 1990s -- and his philosophy of perseverance. The companys early forays into trading gas and oil left it with a black eye. Vitols goal was to supply the refined products and then try to pick up upstream assets in Libya, said a western diplomatic source. It was done a long time ago. Publications A collection of deliverables from ComTech Advisory including Research reports, White Papers, Analyst Notes and other informative articles all available for free download. Along the way it has moved headquarters to Belgium, Argentina, Brazil and then the United States. Check if your university If you dont offer competitive terms, no one will work with you, he told a Russian daily this month. Vitols early running gave the firm an edge with the countrys new political stewards. That took the headcount to 1,200 from about 10 in 2004. For many commodities traders, the most profitable ploy has been the squeeze, which involves driving prices up or down by accumulating a dominant position. One of the things that gives us an advantage is that were working in the physical markets as well so (we can) absorb all that information and make the calls.. analyse how our Sites are used. No suggestions of wrong-doing were leveled against Dunand or Jaeggi. Vitols wealth is spread across only 330 share-holding employees, fewer than Glencores 500. Around two decades ago, Kuok Khoon Hong decided to leave the business empire of his billionaire uncle Robert Kuok to set up an edible oil business with a big bet: China. The company has spent six decades trying to keep it that way. Mercuria Energy Group, Ltd. Mercuria is a Geneva, Switzerland-based trading firm focused on energy products and dry bulk commodities. Overall Arcadia profited by $50 million in derivatives markets as oil futures spreads collapsed, according to the suit. Founded in 2004, Mercuria Energy Trading is one of the world biggest independent energy . To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Hoffman in Geneva at ahoffman31@bloomberg.net; Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in Singapore at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net, To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net Amanda Jordan A master of physical markets, it owns a 4,000-mile U.S. pipeline network and three of the countrys most profitable refineries. That would put them well below the 16 percent stake Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg owns in his firm. It doesnt always work. The futures market may take some of that information and run with it. In its early days it profited by opening a trade route shipping Russian crude to China from Gdansk, Poland. We support credit card, debit card and PayPal payments. In June, it invested $50 million in a Romanian gas producer. Noble has grown by acquiring troubled competitors. The firms traders, according to two industry sources, made a fortune for Koch in 2009-10 during a contango in U.S. oil markets -- a period when oil for future delivery was higher priced than immediate cargoes. That gives its traders the advantage of timely market intelligence. t: +1 832 687 4736 e: info@comtechadvisory.com, 2023 CTRM Center - Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | What is? Mercuria was nearing the sale of an equity stake of 10 percent to 20 percent to Chinese sovereign wealth fund State Development & Investment Co., according to two people familiar with the matter. He is one of Russias most private tycoons. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many users needs. We are not thinking about an IPO -- but that doesnt mean we dont have an open mind, Dunand told Reuters in June. The shares listed at 530 pence in May but have since traded below that, dropping almost a quarter in three months. By annual revenue Vitol is richer than Glencore but the numbers arent directly comparable -- Glencore owns more hard assets which, typically, are far more profitable than trade turnover. China is becoming more like a Glencore, said Hinde. Critics, including the Russian opposition, put it simply -- Russias paramount leader helped businessman Gennady Timchenko create the Gunvor oil trading empire, which saw a spectacular rise in the past decade when Putin was president and then prime minister. Theyve remained successful for decades, he said. Thats what it is all about, Fredriksen said of the recent CFTC charges. Margarita Louis-Dreyfus told Les Echos that a listing, merger or the entry of a private investor were all options. A deal with JPMorgan would further challenge Dunand and Jaeggi, who each own 15 percent of Mercurias equity, to integrate the operations into a company that is already growing rapidly. The top five piled up $629 billion in revenues last year, just below the global top five financial companies and more than the combined sales of leading players in tech or telecoms. In one of its biggest-ever crackdowns, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleges Arcadia traders amassed large physical crude positions in Cushing, Oklahoma, to create the appearance of tight supply at the delivery hub for U.S. oil futures. Driven by the rise of Brazil, China, India and other fast-growing economies, the global commodities boom has turbocharged profits at the worlds biggest trading houses. Big trading firms now own a growing number of the mines that produce many of our commodities, the ships and pipelines that carry them, and the warehouses, silos and ports where they are stored. We know how to close the gap (with Vitol and Glencore) and we are actively catching up, Tornqvist said. [25][26][27][28], In 2020, Mercuria had its best year ever, earning $786 million with revenues in line with commodity prices to about $85 billion. Mercuria specializes in trading and supplying physical commodities, investing in strategic assets, providing financing and logistics services and offering solutions to help clients meet their needs, including their net zero goals. personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to JPMorgans power-generating assets, which include stakes in three U.S. plants, wont be included in a sale to Mercuria, according to three people close to the talks. The talks with JPMorgan forced Mercuria to put another deal on hold. And unlike commodities producers, such as U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil, trading firms dont just make money when prices go up. His 28-year-old twins Kathrine and Cecilie play a growing role in his sprawling business empire, according to press reports. Premium Digital includes access to our premier business column, Lex, as well as 15 curated newsletters covering key business themes with original, in-depth reporting. The business has grown to 890 employees in 28 countries with a turnover at $75 billion, trading almost 120 million tonnes of oil, coal and gas.

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