By Robert Harvey
LONDON (Reuters) – Trafigura-owned refined products business Puma Energy reported a 5% rise in net profit in 2024 financial results released on Thursday, the third straight year the once struggling business has turned a net profit.
Global commodity trading house Trafigura bought out Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol’s stake in then loss-making Puma Energy in 2021, taking full control and integrating it into the company in a push to expand its downstream market share.
Net profit was $39 million, the company said in a statement. It will not pay a dividend, and, as a result, its equity value reached $476 million, its highest level since 2018.
Stable performance in core segments and regions helped counterbalance lower demand for bitumen, which is used to pave roads, and weaker refining margins over the last year, it said.
“Our presence across multiple regions, segments, and products has proven to be a key strength,” Puma’s chief financial officer Carlos Pons said in the statement.
Puma said its fuel retail network grew by 6% last year to 2,106 sites, around 62% of which are in Latin America.
However, in addition to weaker bitumen demand, deconsolidation in its Tanzania operations and downsizing of its Papua New Guinea business caused earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to fall by 16% on the year to $338 million.
Its operating cash flow, meanwhile, fell 64% on the year to $139 million due to a $38 million outflow from exiting its UK fuels business in July and $90 million in outstanding 2023 cargo payments that rolled into January 2024, the firm said.
Puma’s chief executive Hadi Hallouche will step down at the end of June, Trafigura announced earlier this month, to be replaced by Mark Russell, currently Trafigura’s head of energy for the MENA region.
Trafigura last year reshuffled its organisational structure with the creation of an operational assets division, bringing its portfolio of cross-commodity assets together under a separate pillar headed up by Jiri Zrust.
As part of that drive, Zrust was made chairman of the board of Puma Energy this month.
(Reporting by Robert Harvey, editing by Alex Lawler and Joe Bavier)
