Giant trader and charterer Trafigura is reported to have held talks with US investor Blackstone over a $3bn cash injection. Bloomberg and the Financial Times cited sources as saying the Swiss group wants to widen its sources of funding as the Ukraine war sends commodity prices sharply upwards. The sources added the discussions ended without a deal. New York’s Blackstone, the largest alternative asset manager in the world, is not commenting.

In a statement, Trafigura referred to the appointment in March last year of Khodor Mattar, a former executive at Singapore state investment company Temasek executive, to a new role as head of capital development. This was part of a longer-term strategy to diversify funding. “We have been building relationships with alternative providers of capital,” the company said. “We regularly engage with alternative capital providers on debt and equity opportunities across the business.”

Big traders rely on credit lines to fund deals, but financing requirements have grown as commodity prices have risen. A VLCC crude cargo costs almost $200m currently.

Trafigura has not appeared to have any trouble attracting bank financing in recent times. Earlier this month, the group clinched an over-subscribed refinancing to boost liquidity in volatile markets. The company said it closed new European multi-currency syndicated revolving credit facilities worth $5.295bn. The refinancing was targeting a total of $4.5bn but was “very well received by the bank market and closed substantially oversubscribed,” Trafigura added.

Trafigura is still dealing in Russian energy but has frozen investments in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, Trafigura generated net profit of $3.1bn, almost double the previous year’s $1.6bn. Last year, Blackstone pulled out of Eletson Gas after eight years. TradeWinds cited market sources as saying the New York asset manager sold its stake in the Greek LPG carrier owner to Toronto-based hedge fund Murchinson.