Energy Trader Mercuria Made Over $2 Billion in Third Year of Bumper Profits

(Bloomberg) — Mercuria Energy Group Ltd made profits of just over $2 billion last year, another bumper result for the energy trader even as a boom in commodities earnings began to fade.

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The firm made $2.09 billion in its financial year to September, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity discussing private figures.

It’s hard to compare the figure with prior periods, after Mercuria changed its financial year-end from December in 2023. The result for 2024 was lower than the record earnings of $2.98 billion in 2022, but still by far exceeded any annual profit before 2022, when Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine upended supply chains and triggered massive price volatility in energy markets.

As the dust settles on the most profitable ever period for commodity traders, some are reporting bigger drop-offs in earnings than others. In 2024, Mercuria’s earnings almost drew level with much larger rival Trafigura Group, which reported a 62% fall in earnings after taking a loss linked to alleged employee misconduct in Mongolia.

Meanwhile, Wall Street banks are expected to see a drop of about 20% in commodities revenues in 2024, according to consultancy Coalition Greenwich, while investment firm Citadel was on track to match its 2023 performance, Bloomberg reported last month.

Mercuria paid another large dividend to shareholders led by co-founders Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, the people said. The company — in which Dunand and Jaeggi hold a majority stake — paid dividends of $1.7 billion in 2024, after a record dividend of $2.1 billion in 2023. Its group equity at the end of the period was $6.6 billion, the people said.

A spokesperson for Mercuria declined to comment.

Mercuria has been on a hiring spree in the past year, bringing in some of the biggest names in commodities to build out trading books in metals, liquefied natural gas and carbon. It’s also been making investments in energy tankers, shipping fuel distribution, batteries and gas storage.