Trafigura has grown into the world’s third-largest independent oil trader and second-largest non-ferrous concentrates trader over a period of less than 20 years since being set up in the early 1990s by trader Claude Dauphin.

Dauphin worked for now-defunct trading house Marc Rich & Co, which later transformed into Glencore following a management buyout.

Glencore’s $10 billion initial public offering earlier this year triggered expectations of a flurry of IPOs by private traders to benefit from high commodity prices and to expand without relying solely on debt markets.

On Thursday, Trafigura sold 20 percent in its oil storage and supply unit, Puma Energy, to Angolan state energy company Sonangol. Trafigura may float Puma within the next 18 months, reducing its role to a minority stake, the subsidiary’s chief executive said.

“We want to be ready a year from now so (that) if we wanted, we could go for an IPO,” Puma CEO Pierre Eladari told Reuters in a telephone interview from Geneva.

“If we wanted to be more aggressive and accelerate our plans, we would like to have access to public markets. Realistically you would look at 18 months from now at the earliest,” he said.

Eladari said Puma had not yet decided where to list and how much capital it would aim to raise. He said the firm has a turnover of $4 billion and core earnings (EBITDA) of $350 million.

Shares in Glencore and trading house Noble trade at EV/EBITDA (enterprise value to core earnings) multiples of seven to 10, which could give Puma a valuation of $2.5-$3.5 billion excluding recent acquisitions.

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Eladari said Puma might look for new strategic investors in addition to Sonangol .

“Whereas the relationship with our founding company is very important, we may need different angles and prospects,” Eladari said.

“This is why we want to bring additional shareholders to increase transparency and make sure that the platform, which has been successful, can continue growing successfully, with a right approach.”

He declined to comment on whether Trafigura has plans for going public. Company executives and industry sources have repeatedly said the firm would remain private.

“We as a company are not really looking at an IPO,” Trafigura’s global head of corporate finance and treasury, Jan-Maarten Mulder, said in March . “We are a partnership.”

Puma has over 3.8 million cubic metres of storage capacity around the world, controls around 1,100 service stations and employs around 2,000 people in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Baltics, the Middle East and Asia.

Eladari said Puma wanted to double in size within five years but that a major expansion in oil upstream and refining was unlikely.

Puma does not see any company that it considers to be a direct peer. “We are the first midstream, downstream company, and we have a fairly large expertise in emerging markets, and this is a rare combination,” Eladari said.

“The downstream business is pretty different from pure trading activity. In terms of management and daily operations, we are a different business model from Trafigura.”