Profits up at Trafigura as firm hands top executives $885m
COMMODITIES broker Trafigura announced a 14 per cent rise in gross profit to $2.045bn yesterday, alongside a 13 per cent rise in core earnings.
The group also revealed it has handed almost $900m back to top executives in the form of share buyback schemes in the past year. The detail was revealed in Trafigura’s annual report. Including deals done in 2014, the group has bought over $2.5bn of shares in the past three years, demonstrating the strength of the company’s books.
China’s continuing boom remains lucrative for the commodities broker, which added that lower freight and financing costs, combined with falling commodities prices, will help stimulate the global economy.
Trafigura’s founder Claude Dauphin, who stepped down as chief executive earlier this year on medical grounds, said yesterday that a number of large-scale investments made by the company show the confidence it has in the outlook for the industry “as a counterweight to the gloom that has become fashionable to express”. He added that the Chinese economy could double again in the next decade if growth continues at current levels.