LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Trading house Mercuria posted a 6% fall in profit in 2025 while expanding its metals, physical LNG and shipping businesses with geographical expansion from Latin America to
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Trading house Mercuria posted a 6% fall in profit in 2025 while expanding its metals, physical LNG and shipping businesses with geographical expansion from Latin America to Central Asia, its chief financial officer told Reuters on Friday.
Profits of trading houses fell from record highs of 2022-2023, when energy prices jumped due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The merchants reinvested profits into business expansion and equity while also paying record dividends.
Mercuria's net income fell to $1.43 billion in 2025 from $1.52 billion in 2024 and a record of $3 billion in 2022, CFO Guillaume Vermersch said. He said annual results were on a December-December basis. Mercuria Energy Group is an independent energy and commodity trading company primarily based in Geneva, Switzerland.
By comparison, rival Trafigura's profit fell to $2.7 billion in 2025 from $2.8 billion in 2024 and a record of $7.4 billion in 2023.
"2025 was a year of transition towards integrating metals, physical LNG, and shipping," Vermersch said.
Mercuria's equity stood at $6.3 billion in 2025, down from a near-record of $6.6 billion in 2024, Vermersch said, adding that the firm's effective tax rate stood at 16-18% for the full year 2025.
The firm has yet to pay a dividend for 2025, he said.
Mercuria does not disclose dividends. Sources have said it paid over $5 billion for the three years between 2022-2024, keeping equity relatively stable.
Metals now account for around 20% of the firm's $130 billion annual turnover, with non-oil activities - including gas, power and metals - representing roughly 65% of the business, Vermersch said.
Mercuria expanded in 2025 and will further expand in Latin America in Peru, Chile, Mexico and Argentina, in Central Asia's Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as well as in Turkey and in India through a newly formed venture with Tata International, he said.
The expansion resulted in Mercuria using 50-60% of its credit lines with banks, up from a near-zero utilisation in 2022-2024 when rates were high and traders preferred to use their cash from record profits, Vermersch said.
(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
