Let's see if glencore has made summat like these24 Jul 2021 05:43
Vitol has handed a record payday to senior executives and staff, giving the equivalent of more than $7m to each of the London-run oil trading company’s near 400 partners.
The bumper payout follows one of the best years for the company, which after a stuttering start in 2020 emerged as one of the big winners from the pandemic-induced oil price crash.
In the year to December the privately held company returned $2.9bn through share buybacks, which goes directly to top employees led by chief executive Russell Hardy.
The pay bonanza, which highlights the huge fortunes that can be made from trading oil and other commodities, follows the death last year of long-running chief executive Ian Taylor, who spearheaded the transformation of a small Dutch fuel dealer into the world’s largest independent oil trader.
Vitol declined to comment.
The company, which is still registered in the Netherlands but whose top executives primarily sit in London, is far from a household name in the UK but has grown rapidly over the past two decades, minting a long line of millionaire oil traders in the UK capital who rub shoulders with hedge fund managers and investment bankers among the ranks of the capital’s top earners.
The payout comes after a record year for Vitol, which cashed in on the turmoil created by the coronavirus pandemic. While big oil producers struggled as prices for their core products plunged, traders profited by betting on big price swings, storage deals and other opportunities created by market volatility.
Other privately held energy traders including Trafigura, Mercuria and Gunvor, whose top executives sit in Geneva, also enjoyed bumper years as a result of the volatility in oil prices.
It has not all been smooth sailing for the commodity trading industry, however, with some companies being targeted by investigations in the US, Switzerland and elsewhere looking at historical allegations of bribery and corruption.
At the end of last year Vitol agreed to pay more than $160m as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice after it admitted to bribery schemes in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico involving employees and agents. Vitol said in May it was working hard to “mitigate compliance risks” across its business.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
