Mercuria's H1 Net Profit Surges 88% YoY, Reaching Second-Highest on Record
0xBroomberg
Commodity trader Mercuria posted $1.09 billion in net profit for the half-year to March, up 88% year-on-year — its second-best half ever. The Strait of Hormuz crisis is handing top-tier trading houses a fresh super-profit cycle.
Where did the $1.09 billion come from?
The core driver: supply shocks from the Hormuz crisis. Oil, aluminium and LNG — key Middle East exports — swung violently, opening wide arbitrage windows for traders.
The half-year captured only about one month of post-conflict volatility, yet profit still jumped 88%. This means → even a brief taste of the disruption was enough to supercharge returns.
Two additional contributors: extreme cold in January hit European and US power and gas markets, and copper cross-market arbitrage between the US and other exchanges kept delivering.
What does the full-year outlook look like?
CEO Marco Dunand said in April he expects return on equity at the upper end of the firm's historical 25%–50% range, implying full-year profit of roughly $2.3 billion to $3.2 billion.
Equity — in plain terms = the capital shareholders have invested in the firm — rose from $6.04 billion to $7.13 billion, up about 18% in six months.
A bigger capital base multiplied by a high return rate points to a potential record annual profit.
Why no dividend this time?
Mercuria paid no dividend in H1, choosing instead to retain all profit and build up its equity base.
That marks a sharp reversal from 2022–2023, when the firm paid large dividends to shareholders including co-founders Daniel Jaeggi and Marco Dunand during the commodity super-cycle.
This reflects a priority shift: management is channelling capital into expansion rather than payouts.
Where is the expansion money going?
Prepayments and loans on the balance sheet surged 75% to $5.09 billion. Prepayments — advancing cash to suppliers to lock in future physical supply — are the core tool commodity traders use to secure resources.
Specific moves: a $1.2 billion prepayment to finance the acquisition of a Kazakh copper miner; purchase of an Argentine refinery and fuel-station network; multiple supply agreements with Venezuela.
This means → Mercuria is accelerating a shift from "asset-light spread trading" to "asset-heavy supply locking," betting that supply disruptions are not a short-term story.
How does this compare with peers?
Rival Trafigura reported H1 profit exceeding $4 billion over the same period — well above Mercuria's $1.09 billion.
Yet both results confirm the same point: in a supply-shock environment, top commodity traders see their earnings amplified collectively.
In plain terms = Mercuria is not the only winner — the entire sector is minting money. The real test comes in H2: whether the heavy assets accumulated during expansion can keep delivering returns.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.