Lancer Group Places Former Solera (NYSE:SLH) Finance Executive at JMI-backed ResourceNation as CFO (External Link)

September 26, 2011

Hellman & Friedman acquires Openlink Financial Solutions from The Carlyle Group (External Link)

September 12, 2011

Lancer Group Places Former IAC (NASDAQ:IACI) SVP HR at Apax Partners-backed Epicor as SVP Human Resources (External Link)

August 31, 2011

Vitol sees 25% rise in trading volumes amid strong energy demand (External Link)

May 14, 2011

Vitol, the world’s largest oil trader, said trading volumes rose 25 per cent last year compared with 2009, helping it to deliver a “solid performance”.

The privately-held company does not disclose profitability but said in a statement on Monday that revenues rose to $195bn, up more than one-third from $143bn in the previous year.

Revenues are, however, a poor measure of traders’ performance as they rise or fall with commodities prices and volumes and have little influence on profitability.

Commodities traders’ margins are razor-thin, with some showing profitability as low as 0.5 per cent of overall revenue in a bad year and as high as 3 per cent in boom periods. Oil trading houses suffered a relatively lacklustre 2010 due to low market volatility in oil and gas.

Ian Taylor, Vitol chief executive, said that trading conditions would remain “competitive” in 2011. But he added that global demand for energy would grow strongly, which often helps trading houses’ profitability.

“Despite some lingering uncertainty, the global economic outlook is strong and can be expected to underpin strong growth in energy demand, particularly in the fast growing economies of Asia, the Middle East and South America,” Mr Taylor said.

Vitol is expanding beyond its core business of trading. For example, it said on Monday that it had joined with private equity firm Helios Investment to buy some of Royal Dutch Shell’s downstream business in Africa for about $1bn.

Mr Taylor suggested Vitol had the appetite for further deals in the short term, saying that “as the traditional oil majors look to reshape their portfolios, with a bias to the upstream, this will continue to offer both trading potential and investment opportunities in selected high quality assets.”

Last May Vitol sold a 50 per cent stake in its petroleum terminals and storage business to a subsidiary of Petronas, Malaysia’s national oil company, for $735m in cash.

The trading house published its first ever financial comments last year, disclosing trading volumes and revenues – a move that was seen as a small step towards greater transparency among trading companies, which have traditionally shunned publicity. Glencore, the world’s largest trader of minerals, metals, oil and food, has moved to publish biannual financial results and other trading houses are also publishing some financial details.

Vitol is the world’s largest oil trader by volume, ahead of Glencore, Trafigura, Gunvor and Mercuria. It trades nearly 5m barrels a day, enough to cover the daily import needs of France, Italy and Spain combined.

Lancer Group places former American Express (NYSE:AXP) VP Corporate Development at fmr. Carlyle-backed Openlink Financial Solutions (External Link)

May 11, 2011