Richard Holtum will take over as chief executive of global trading house Trafigura from Jan 1 next year, the company said on Tuesday.

Outgoing CEO Jeremy Weir, who held the position for over 10 years, will take up the role of group chairman on the same date.

Holtum, who will become a member of Trafigura's board of directors from October, will pass his role as global head of gas, power and renewables to the current head of power trading, Igor Marin.

"The board of directors unanimously selected Richard Holtum to lead the Trafigura Group. Richard has achieved extensive success in developing high-performing teams and building Trafigura's gas, power and renewables business into a robust and growing third pillar for the group," independent non-executive director Sipko Schat said.

Holtum, who started his career in the British army, has had a rapid rise at Trafigura, having joined the firm's Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) team in 2014 from rival Glencore.

Holtum had added renewables to his portfolio last year after a consolidation of the trading house's leadership structure.

Reuters exclusively reported in April that Weir had begun priming Holtum to take the helm.

"Today's announcement marks the culmination of a succession planning process by the Board over nearly three years to prepare the organisation for the next generation of leadership," Weir said.

The announcement is the second organisational reshuffle in Trafigura in quick succession. A little over a week ago the firm said it would create a fourth pillar for its business, operational assets, to be headed by Jiri Zrust.

Holtum will take over Trafigura at a time profits for trading houses are set to weaken following two years of jumbo earnings due to energy prices spikes and volatility following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Trafigura's net profit for the first half of its financial year fell by more than 74% this year, the lowest since 2020 for the same period, after posting record or near-record results every year over 2020-2023.

Record profit allowed Trafigura to grow equity almost 2.5 times to US$16.5 billion in the last four years. That means the company will have to spend billions on buying out departing shareholders in the next few years, including Weir.

  - Reuters