Gunvor Renames Itself

Commodities trader Gunvor Group renamed itself Centalion Group Ltd. and plans to redomicile its corporate headquarters to Singapore, a shift for the firm’s new owners after historic ties to Russia drew the ire of the US Treasury last year.

The rebrand follows a July 2026 referendum within the company and will be used from today, it said in a statement on Friday. Centalion, a portmanteau of “centurion” and “battalion,” refers to qualities of teamwork and leadership a company spokesperson said.

The change is partly a symbolic move away from the company’s previous ownership. Co-founded in 2000 by Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko and Swedish trader Torbjörn Törnqvist, “Gunvor” took its name from Törnqvist’s mother. The commodity trader’s management bought out Törnqvist late last year, after a tumultuous month in which the US Treasury described the company as “the Kremlin’s puppet.”

The company’s ownership came under scrutiny a number of times for its close ties to Russia. First, when Timchenko sold his stake ahead of incoming US sanctions, and again last year when Törnqvist reached a deal to buy the international assets of energy giant Lukoil PJSC. Subsequent scrutiny of that deal was the catalyst for a management buyout that led to American Gary Pedersen becoming the new chief executive officer.

While Centalion’s corporate headquarters will shift from Cyprus to Singapore, its main trading office will remain in Geneva. The trading house’s chairman and CEO will remain based in Houston, the spokesperson said.

Gunvor also said in its announcement that the company wanted a new corporate identity to reflect its evolution beyond oil trading to moving more gas, metals and power.

Margins for trading physical energy markets have soared as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine disrupt flows of oil and gas from some of the world’s biggest suppliers. 

Centalion reported a net profits of $909 million in the first half of the year, Bloomberg reported in September. That’s more than it’s made in all but three full years in its history, and puts it on course for an annual profit approaching its record result of $2.36 billion in 2022.

Redomiciling its corporate headquarters from Cyprus will involve the transfer of the existing legal entity to a new location rather than the incorporation of a new legal structure, the company said.