Robert Harvey
(Reuters) – International finance company Trafigura said on Tuesday that Richard Holtham will take up the role of chief executive officer from Jan. 1 next year.
Jeremy Weir, who has served as CEO for more than 10 years, will step down and become group chairman on the same day.
Holtum, who will join Trafigura's board of directors from October, will take over his role as global head of gas, power and renewables from Igor Marin, the current head of power trading.
“The Board has unanimously selected Richard Holtham to lead Trafigura Group. Richard has had great success in developing a high-performing team and building Trafigura's gas, power and renewable energy business into a strong and growing third pillar for the Group,” said Independent Director Sipko Shutt.
Holtham, who began his career in the British military, joined Trafigura's liquefied natural gas (LNG) team from rival Glencore (OTC:) in 2014 and has rapidly risen through the ranks at the company.
Holttum added renewable energy to his portfolio last year after consolidating the trading company's management structure.
Reuters exclusively reported in April that Weir had begun preparing Holtham to take over as manager.
“Today's announcement marks the culmination of a nearly three-year succession planning process undertaken by the Board to prepare the organization for the next generation of leadership,” Weir said.
The announcement marks the second in a series of restructurings at Trafigura, which announced just over a week ago that it was creating a fourth pillar of its business, assets under management, to be led by Jiri Zurst.
Focus on profits
Holtum is buying Trafigura at a time when trading company profits are expected to weaken after two years of big gains due to rising energy prices and instability following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Trafigura's net profit for the first half of this year fell more than 74% this year to its lowest for the same period since 2020, after having delivered at or near record highs in each of 2020-2023.
Record profits have allowed Trafigura to grow its capital almost 2.5-fold to $16.5 billion over the past four years, meaning the company will need to spend billions more over the next few years to buy out departing shareholders, including Weir.
