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After 30 years in Singapore, oil trading losses force Mitsubishi to shut Petro-Diamond
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/business...shi-to-shut-petro-diamond#lpGgxCHU1W54ESAJ.99
SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - About three years ago, Japanese oil trading firm Petro-Diamond Singapore (PDS) relocated to a bigger office in the 41-storey Millenia Tower as parent Mitsubishi Corp started combining its Tokyo trade operation with that in the city state.
As its traders entertained clients in the company's pantry facing Singapore's Marina Bay, the once-conservative PDS became the global book leader for the company's crude oil and fuel trading businesses last year, tripling its profits and assets from two years ago, according to Reuters interviews with company officials, trade sources and reviews of its financial records.
Like other trading companies, PDS had eyed a slice of the fast-growing Chinese crude import market, hiring for the first time a Chinese trader in November 2018 to handle crude sales to independent refiners, known as teapots, the sources said.
But in September, Mitsubishi said a PDS trader had lost US$320mil in unauthorised transactions in crude oil derivatives and that the matter had been reported to the police. The trader, Wang Xingchen, also known as Jack Wang, denied any wrongdoing in a statement issued through a lawyer.
On Wednesday, Mitsubishi, Japan's biggest trading house by sales, said it planned to shut the 30-year-old PDS following the losses.
"It took 30 years to achieve this and it's all been ruined," a company official said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as the case was still under investigation.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/business...shi-to-shut-petro-diamond#lpGgxCHU1W54ESAJ.99
- ENERGY
- Wednesday, 06 Nov 2019
8:04 PM MYT
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/business...shi-to-shut-petro-diamond#lpGgxCHU1W54ESAJ.99
SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - About three years ago, Japanese oil trading firm Petro-Diamond Singapore (PDS) relocated to a bigger office in the 41-storey Millenia Tower as parent Mitsubishi Corp started combining its Tokyo trade operation with that in the city state.
As its traders entertained clients in the company's pantry facing Singapore's Marina Bay, the once-conservative PDS became the global book leader for the company's crude oil and fuel trading businesses last year, tripling its profits and assets from two years ago, according to Reuters interviews with company officials, trade sources and reviews of its financial records.
Like other trading companies, PDS had eyed a slice of the fast-growing Chinese crude import market, hiring for the first time a Chinese trader in November 2018 to handle crude sales to independent refiners, known as teapots, the sources said.
But in September, Mitsubishi said a PDS trader had lost US$320mil in unauthorised transactions in crude oil derivatives and that the matter had been reported to the police. The trader, Wang Xingchen, also known as Jack Wang, denied any wrongdoing in a statement issued through a lawyer.
On Wednesday, Mitsubishi, Japan's biggest trading house by sales, said it planned to shut the 30-year-old PDS following the losses.
"It took 30 years to achieve this and it's all been ruined," a company official said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as the case was still under investigation.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/business...shi-to-shut-petro-diamond#lpGgxCHU1W54ESAJ.99
