March 23, 2016 [OPIS] - Swiss-based commodities trading house Gunvor notched up net profits of $1.25 billion in 2015 as it sold off Russian assets and recorded strong downstream results.
Gunvor’s EBITDA rose to $860 million in 2015, up from $752 million the previous year, while trading and refining earnings increased by some 10% on the year.
Although total trading volumes last year increased from 137 million tons to 180 million tons, the trading house’s revenues dropped 27% to $64 million reflecting the prolonged decline in commodity prices.
Gunvor CEO Torbjorn Tornqvist said the group was “very well positioned” in the current market as it improves earnings from trading and geographically diversifying.
The group’s planned divestments of Russian assets was said to be now complete, which in 2015 included its coal mining assets as well as stakes in the Ust Luga terminal on the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea Novorossiysk fuel oil terminal.
Last October, Gunvor acquired the 88,000-b/d Europoort refinery in Rotterdam, its third European refinery after Antwerp and Ingolstadt, raising its overall refining capacity to 275,000 b/d.
