Gunvor managers buy out CEO Tornqvist as company seeks ‘definitive reset’

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By Robert Harvey and Shariq Khan

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Global commodity trading house Gunvor’s CEO Torbjorn Tornqvist will step down and sell his shareholding in a management buyout, weeks after the U.S. dubbed the firm the “Kremlin’s puppet” over its past Russian links.

The firm said on Monday that Americas head Gary Pedersen, hired by the company last year, will succeed Tornqvist. His promotion coincides with a push by Gunvor to smooth ties with Washington, which has seen the firm hold active talks to invest in U.S. oil and gas-producing assets in recent weeks.

“The buyout has been advanced at this time to establish a definitive reset and path forward for a company for which misperceptions about its past have become an impossible distraction,” Gunvor said in a statement.

That was a reference to the U.S. Treasury last month calling the company the “Kremlin’s puppet” and sinking what would have been Gunvor’s biggest ever deal to acquire U.S.-sanctioned Russian oil major Lukoil’s international assets.

SWITCH AT THE HELM SPELLS END OF AN ERA     

The CEO change marks the end of Tornqvist’s 25-year leadership of Swiss-based Gunvor, in a deal that could be worth billions of dollars.    

He had an 86.1% shareholding at the time of the deal, Gunvor said.

The company did not specify the buyout value, but Gunvor’s equity value was around $6.5 billion at the end of 2024 according to its financial results. 

Gunvor trades approximately 3.2 million barrels per day of oil and liquid equivalents, making it one of the world’s largest commodity traders, though still behind rivals Vitol and Trafigura which trade closer to 7 million barrels per day of liquids.

SPLIT FROM TORNQVIST

Tornqvist, 72, has already stepped down as CEO and will exit the company’s board when the deal closes, Gunvor said. 

Around 60 employees will acquire Tornqvist’s majority share, with a cap to make sure no individual shareholder can become dominant.

The buyout will be funded by a mixture of partners’ own equity and a vendor loan from Tornqvist, to be paid annually with fixed interest for a period of up to 10 years.

Gunvor also said no members of the Tornqvist family will remain in employment or involved with the company. His son Fredrik Tornqvist was Gunvor’s energy transition director and head of renewables investment unit Nyera.

TORNQVIST CO-FOUNDED GUNVOR IN 2000

“I’m ready and the company is ready for this transition, which we have worked on for some time. For a trading house of Gunvor’s size and complexity, a broad-based, inclusive partnership is the right model,” Tornqvist said.

Tornqvist co-founded Gunvor in 2000 with business partner Gennadiy Timchenko, and grew the company into the largest trader of Russian oil in the 2000s.

Gunvor has since expanded into new markets, including in recent years moving into U.S. gas and power, amid a wider trend of top trading houses allocating their record earnings towards expansion in different geographies and commodities.

GUNVOR EYES US EXPANSION

Pedersen joined Gunvor last year from hedge fund Millennium Management, where he was a senior portfolio manager for refined products since 2022. He was hired “with the intention of eventually assuming global leadership,” Gunvor said.

Pedersen began his career in the mid-90s with private U.S. conglomerate Koch, where he worked for over two decades across the company’s various energy-related entities, from the Koch Chemical Company, to the refining and trading arms.

Under Pedersen, Gunvor’s Americas arm has sought to grow its investments in U.S. shale gas production.

Gunvor’s U.S. portfolio currently has an enterprise value exceeding $4 billion and is a key growth area, a company spokesperson told Reuters recently. 

(Reporting by Robert Harvey and Pratima Desai in London and Shariq Khan in New York;Editing by Bernadette Baum and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)