Afternoon summary
Time to wrap up, here are today’s main stories:
Trafigura’s shareholders and top traders to share $1.7bn in payouts
The commodities trading firm Trafigura is to hand more than $1.7bn to its top traders and shareholders after the energy crisis, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, led to a surge in profits.
Trafigura, one of the world’s largest specialist commodity traders, posted a record $7bn net profit in its last financial year, more than the previous four years combined after making gains from the market volatility caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Its chief financial officer, Christophe Salmon, hailed an “exceptionally strong year”, as profits more than doubled and revenues grew to $318.5bn in the year to 30 September, up from $231.3bn a year earlier.
The $1.71bn payout to its 1,100 shareholders, including top employees, equates to about $1.56m a head if shared equally. That’s an increase of about 35% compared with 2021’s dividend of $1.12bn to around 1,000 top traders and investors.
