By Robert Harvey
LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Global commodities trading house Trafigura raised its dividends by 50% to almost $3 billion in 2025, despite a small drop in net profit after a second consecutive year of high impairments.
Trafigura’s net profit fell 3% to $2.67 billion in its 2025 financial year to September 30, group results showed on Tuesday.
That marked a shallower drop than last year, when net profits fell by 60% as a record earnings period for trading houses over the previous four years came to a halt.
“Trading conditions were not easy last year, and our trading teams put on a really credible performance across all three divisions,” CEO Richard Holtum said.
DIVIDEND PAYMENTS REBOUND
Trafigura paid shareholders $2.9 billion in dividends for 2025, up from $2 billion last year.
“Profits and dividends are roughly aligned this year. What we’re doing there is paying dividends like any listed company would do,” Chief Financial Officer Stephan Jansma said.
Trafigura’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization was little changed on the year at around $8.2 billion, while group equity value edged slightly lower to $16.2 billion.
TRAFIGURA RECORDS $843 MILLION IN IMPAIRMENTS
Trafigura recorded $843 million in impairments on its 2025 balance sheet, after $1.1 billion in impairments last year following the discovery of a major fraud in Mongolia.
“While our underlying trading performance remained robust, net profit was affected by impairment charges recorded against certain assets,” Jansma said.
Trafigura recorded impairments of $341 million in relation to fixed assets, namely subsidiary Nyrstar’s Australian smelting operation, the Myra Falls mine in Canada, and Greenergy’s UK biodiesel plant at Immingham, citing challenging market conditions.
MONGOLIA FRAUD PROVISION REVISED HIGHER
Trafigura lifted its provision for the large-scale Mongolia fraud from $566.4 million to $708.9 million, after revising down the value of remaining fuel in storage in Mongolia.
That took Trafigura’s total Mongolia fraud loss to $1.2 billion. It said it does not expect to take any further provision for the Mongolia fraud.
TRADING VOLUMES RISE
Trafigura’s traded oil and petroleum products volumes rose 10% on the year to 6.6 million barrels per day, while natural gas volumes increased by a similar amount to 39.6 million metric tons.
Metals volumes dropped 16% to 104 million tons, but Trafigura said 2025 was a record year for the underlying performance of its non-ferrous trading business.
“The thing I was most proud of was the diversity of the business. Every book did a decent job,” CEO Holtum added.
“The 2025 financial year was not a year of easy wins,” global head of oil Ben Luckock said, adding that focusing on its core physical trading business, disciplined cost management, and strategic investments were top priorities.
(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London; Editing by Joe Bavier and Jan Harvey)
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