Trafigura Reshuffles Top Team as Metals Losses Rattle Trader
- Kris Vansanten
- Sep 18, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 22
"Trafigura has been exploring a range of potential deals involving the metals business as it weighs the future of the unit, Bloomberg reported on the weekend."
"Among those who were previously part of Trafigura’s management committee but no longer in the new executive committee are [...] Jesus Fernandez, the head of mergers and acquisitions [...]."
Interesting evolution, which raises a few questions and comments.
* If Trafigura wants to sell or open up the capital of its metals unit, it will have to disclose the €2 billion claim from a group of minority shareholders in Nyrstar, who are charging the company for the allegedly fraudulent reorganisation (read: "Acquisition") of the second largest zinc smelter in the world by Trafigura back in 2019. It will be interesting to see how potential investors will assess the associated risk.
* It is interesting to note that Jesus Fernandez left the executive committee. He was nominated by Trafigura as Board member of Nyrstar in April 2016, where he was involved in the line-up to the restructuring of the company in 2018-2019. He unexpectedly resigned from the Nyrstar board in February 2019 to change sides and become a key member of the negotiation team of Trafigura in charge of the restructuring of Nyrstar whereby Trafigura took full ownership of all the assets of the company for @1 euro.
* The Belgian regulator FSMA issued a statement last year whereby it charged Nyrstar for misleading communication and transferred its findings to the criminal court for further investigation into potential wrongdoings by the individual board members (thus presumably including Jesus Ferandez); their findings and the decision of the Sanction Committee of the FSMA are expected to be served in the coming weeks or months and could be very annoying for the individuals involved and/or the respective companies they represented - including Trafigura.
* Therefore, the question one could ask is whether the current reorganization of the metals trading unit is purely the consequence of the Nickel fraud and the Cobalt disaster, or whether it is a sign of further turmoil to be expected linked to the Nyrstar case. In such case, one could wonder whether the current measures taken should not be seen as the sacrificing of a few soldiers in order to save Trafigura and its top management team from further trouble.
