Everything about Vitol, the oil trading company that bought Saras from Moratti
The Moratti family has sold its stake in Saras to Vitol, the largest oil trading company in the world. Here's business and accounts (record-breaking)
Massimo Moratti's family has sold its controlling stake in Saras , the Sardinia-based oil refining company, to Vitol, one of the world's leading commodity trading companies.
The agreement, worth approximately 1.7 billion euros, concerns a 35 percent share, to which the 5 percent currently held by Angelo Moratti, one of Massimo's nephews, could also be added. After the news broke, Saras opened on the stock market with a drop of 6 percent.
VITOL MOVES TO ASSET ACQUISITION
Vitol, based in Switzerland and the Netherlands, is the largest independent oil trading company. Thanks to the enormous profits recorded in recent years – first with the coronavirus pandemic and then with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two events that caused strong volatility in energy prices on the markets -, it launched the acquisition of assets that should guarantee ample profit margins in the long term. As explained by Bloomberg , which had also anticipated the negotiations for Saras, Vitol has acquired stakes in refineries and fuel distribution networks, as well as having invested in the US oil and renewable sources market.
Once the acquisition of Saras, which markets its fuel in the Mediterranean market, is completed, Vitol will have invested in refining capacity for 800,000 barrels per day.
WILL VITOL ALSO TAKE UP THE PORTO VIRO REGASIFICATION PLANT?
Furthermore, in a few days – as MF-Milano Finanza writes -, Vitol should sign an agreement with the US oil company ExxonMobil for the participation in Adriatic LNG, the company that manages the Porto Viro (Rovigo) regasification terminal . Adriatic LNG is currently 71 percent owned by ExxonMobil, 22 percent by QatarEnergy and 7.3 percent by Snam.
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THE VALUE OF ITALIAN REFINERIES FOR ENERGY TRADING COMPANIES
Returning to Saras, Vitol CEO Russel Hardy said the company's business is "highly complementary to Vitol's core activities", describing the Sarroch refinery, near Cagliari, as "a key energy asset in Europe" : the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, among the highest in all of southern Europe.
Beyond the Moratti family's share, 9.6 percent of Saras is held by Trafigura , another large commodity trading company. Trafigura is also involved in the new management of ISAB in Priolo Gargallo , Sicily, one of the largest refineries in Italy and Europe. Pure Vitol had shown interest in ISAB, but the purchase offer presented by the US fund Crossbridge – an offer that the Swiss-Dutch company supported – did not come to fruition.
THE ACCOUNTS OF VITOL
Vitol is a private company, not listed on the stock exchange, and therefore does not communicate much about its results, as it is not obliged to do so. However, according to revelations from the Financial Times , in 2022 Vitol recorded a net profit of almost 15 billion dollars, higher than those of the previous six years combined: the energy price crisis aggravated by the war made the record possible between Russia and Ukraine.
In 2022 Vitol totaled revenues of 506 billion dollars, compared to 279 billion in 2021.
In March last year the company revealed that liquefied gas trade volumes had grown to 17.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent thanks to increased demand in Europe, which urgently needed to find alternative supplies to the Russian ones. As for crude oil, however, in 2022 Vitol volumes decreased compared to 2021, to 199.5 million tons, due to the detachment from activities in Russia.
Vitol's shareholders are approximately four hundred employees, who received dividends of $2.5 billion in 2023.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/vitol-saras/ on Mon, 12 Feb 2024 10:38:49 +0000.