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Ex-Shell and Trafigura execs go on East Africa offensive with new Montfort trading firm
The name Montfort Group first appeared in the Kenyan and Mozambican press in mid-September when it bought the Kenyan oil marketing firm Kencor Petroleum. A few days later, it announced that it had acquired a stake in an oil storage terminal in Mozambique. The firm accompanied its purchases with press releases touting its entry into the east African market. The terminal in which it bought a stake is located in the port of Matola and has been in operation since 2017. Montfort hopes to use it to serve neighbouring countries.
Montfort, which describes itself as a commodity trading company with an asset management component focused on mature and emerging markets, brings together a host of former Trafigura and Shell executives with connections in Switzerland and the Gulf. It was registered in 2020 in Geneva and has offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Singapore.
The Geneva-Dubai connection
Montfort is owned and run by the Filipino Rashad Kussad, who was a trader for Shell in Dubai (2009-2013) before joining Trafigura as the firm’s trading manager in Singapore (2013-2015) and then its regional manager (2015-2020) in the United Arab Emirates. Italian Diego Perciatini, managing director of Swiss financial services group Amicorp is one of Montcorp’s lawyers. Montfort’s head of bunkering, the Danish national Mikkel Jacobsen, left his position as Trafigura’s co-head of bunkering in Singapore in April to join the new Swiss company’s Dubai office. He previously spent much of his career with the Danish trader Monjasa and was its managing director in Dubai.
Montfort’s global head of finance is the Briton Bobby French, who previously held senior positions in the finance departments of Swiss traders ZR Energy, Puma Energy and Trafigura.
A Ugandan leads Montfort’s African adventures
Montfort called on the Ugandan Daniel Kalumba in June for its African rollout. He has been living in Dubai for over a decade and has worked as a trading manager for Petrochina International (2013-2021), a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned major CNPC, and as a trading operator for Shell between 2009 and 2011. Kalumba knows East Africa well, having been one of Shell’s logisticians in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya between 1998 and 2011.
He was also an East Africa/Red Sea trader for Dubai-based Galana Petroleum (2011-2013). Galana was owned by Kencor Petroleum until it was acquired by Montfort in September.
Ex-Shell and Trafigura execs go on East Africa offensive with new Montfort trading firm
