The eight-year-old company, based in Geneva, is seeking to expand and buy assets. Mercuria is in early discussions with several parties and hopes to reach a deal within 18 months, Marco Dunand, who is also a co-founder, said, declining to give a valuation. ”The move comes almost a year after Mercuria’s competitor Glencore International AG (GLEN), based in Baar, Switzerland, sold $10 billion of stock in an initial public offering to help fund acquisitions and expansion.

“We could envisage an investor coming in for a 10 to 20 percent stake in Mercuria if we could find the right partner,” Dunand said in an April 24 interview in Lausanne, Switzerland. “But this is in the context of long-term partnership, as opposed to a fast investment turning into an initial public offering.”

That contrasts with Vitol Group, the biggest independent oil trader, which has no plans to sell shares, Ian Taylor, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview at the company’s London office last month. Out of Vitol’s 2,810 employees, 360 are partners in the company. Energy trading companies buy and sell crude and refined fuels, trying to profit from short-term fluctuations in prices and mismatches in supply and demand. Owning oil fields or storage tanks give traders an asset base from which to sell.

Vesta Terminals

Before the end of the year, Mercuria may agree a partnership deal for its midstream unit, Vesta, which owns oil terminals and biofuel plants in Netherlands (Vesta Flushing I & II), Belgium (Vesta Antwerp), Estonia (Vesta Tallinn) and Germnay (Vesta Biofuels Brunsbüttel). Rising shale crude production in the U.S. is spurring the need for more infrastructure and transportation, another potential area where Mercuria may buy assets, after it divested exploration and production interests in North Dakota’s Bakken area, Dunand said.