Trading and shipowning giant Vitol has handed out a record $6.4bn in pay after a strong year spurred by geopolitical disruption.
The cash was shared between about 450 partners in the Rotterdam and Geneva-headquartered group, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.
Profit for 2023 has been reported at $13bn, according to the FT and Bloomberg — a drop from $15.1bn in 2022, but easily beating the $4bn logged in 2021.
Pay for last year took the form of a share buyback, the report said.
Vitol does not publish net earnings figures.
The group has been contacted for comment.
Disruption in energy trading and shipping since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has boosted earnings for Vitol.
Rival Trafigura paid out its biggest-ever dividend of $5.9bn to its 1,200 shareholders in the year ending September 2023. The profit for the year was $7.4bn.
Vitol has been using some earnings for acquisitions, becoming the biggest shareholder in Italian refiner and charterer Saras in June.
It also acquired BP’s refining operations in Turkey through its domestic subsidiary Petrol Ofisi in 2023.
And on Friday, the group announced a $209m takeover of Singapore trader Noble Resources Trading.
Noble, which has coal and oil product trading and shipping interests, trades 35m tonnes of thermal coal per year.
It is also a leader in metallurgical coke and coal, fitting into Vitol’s push into metals.
Noble, which also has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, emerged in 2018 as a separate entity after the collapse of trader Noble Group following a 45-month probe into misleading accounting statements.
