Abalone Commodities: New Kids on The Block with Greek DNA and $1 Billion Trades
The company was created at the beginning of 2023 and already the size of its trades exceeds one billion dollars. Its headquarters are located in Monaco, while it has offices in Lucerne, Dubai and Singapore, and Greek DNA. The interesting thing about the case of Abalone Commodities AG is that it operates in an industry that can drive the global economy, but very little is known about it in most of the world. It is an international commodities company that keeps a low profile and avoids publicity. “We are important commodity market players globally. We connect producers and customers of minerals, metals and energy, reliably and responsibly. Throughout our global network we are developing infrastructure and logistics, and are making global supply chains more efficient,” says Andreas Laskaratos, CEO and one of the founding executives of Abalone Commodities.
The company is among the elite of those companies involved in global trading in contracts for oil, natural gas and other raw materials. It already moves several million barrels per month of crude oil, gas, and carbon dioxide emissions.
For 37-year-old Andreas Laskaratos, “oil and oil products, such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil, are an essential part of the global energy mix used for transport and by a wide range of industries”. As he explains to Fortune Greece, Abalone Commodities’ goal is to play an important role in supporting growing global energy demand during the ongoing transition to a low-carbon economy.
“Our team has significant expertise in sourcing, buying, selling and transporting oil and petroleum products to customers around the world, safely and efficiently,” he notes. Already, Abalone Commodities, which owns the cargo as well as the risk, works with large companies, established trading houses, importers/exporters, ship owners and distributors such as Chevron, BP, Exxon and others.
But how has a new company, in this highly competitive market, managed to become visible to large multinational clients in such a short period of time? The “secret“, if we can call it a secret, lies with the team that set up Abalone Commodities 14 months ago. “Our founding team members have over 50 years of experience in the industry. Our team has earned an excellent reputation in the market for the results it has achieved over the last 20 years, and this is the main guarantee for our clients. At the same time, crucially, we operate in all major geographical areas and are authorized and licensed to trade in all the major Energy Exchanges,” says Andreas Laskaratos.
The Abalone Commodities team consists of seasoned professionals with many years of experience in commodity trading, risk management, market analysis, etc. In addition to Andreas Laskaratos, the leadership team includes Sebastien Willems, Chief Trading Officer, with more than 25 years of experience in the industry and the major players in the field.
He was for 14 years global head of Glencore in lighted products and is currently an executive and partner of the management team at Abalone together with Andreas. Sylvain Fresi, Global Head Risk Management, also a former Glencore executive, has many years of experience.
COO Alessandra Panella Farbello has worked for more than 25 years in the financial sector. Ilaria De Paulis is the financial director. This management team has already achieved record profits, some of the highest recorded in the markets in the last ten years, and already has significant contracts with large quantities of commodities to and from producers and customers worldwide.
Its other shareholders have also contributed to the development of Abalone Commodities – the Swiss Abalone Group and US investors, who manage and invest significant funds around the world.
This, combined with its management team, have formed the basis for the company -within an extremely short period of time- to have joint ventures with refineries across Europe, with the aim of supplying them with natural gas, as well as sales and management electricity production.
At the same time, through a special investment fund that was created, it is responsible for financing charters, while it has contracts with oil mining companies, oil majors or downstream clients.
All this has already brought a turnover of more than one billion dollars. In 2023, it achieved high profitability, covering all investments and costs. “It was important that we exceeded two million tons per month in cargo, which means over 100 million dollars per month in transactions,” says Andreas Laskaratos and adds: “We are trying to create a company that is likened to Formula 1. We are trying to attract the best because we aim for particularly high goals. We have built frameworks to check the background of all our potential new clients. We are not difficult, but we don’t want to risk the name we are building”.
For Andreas Laskaratos, the good performance of Abalone Commodities is related to its management team. “We approach the best talent in both our jobs and clients. We have extremely high standards,” he emphasizes.
“Our approach is based, among other things, on research and analysis. This allows us, in combination with geopolitical events, market movements and macroeconomic conditions, to identify opportunities and take the corresponding positions. We pride ourselves on our commitment to transparency and integrity, and believe in building long-term relationships with our clients based on trust and mutual success. Our team works tirelessly to stay ahead of market trends and develop innovative strategies that maximize returns while minimizing risk”.
*Το άρθρο δημοσιεύεται στο νέο τεύχος του Fortune Greece που κυκλοφορεί από την Παρασκευή 22/03 στα περίπτερα.
**Φωτογραφίες: Personal Archive
