Streetwise Professor

When the US Treasury torpedoed Gunvor’s bid to buy Lukoil’s international assets, it was the occasion for “serious self-reflection” within the company. Today, a few weeks later, that “self-reflection” resulted in action: the exit of Torbjörn Törnqvist from the company, and the sale of his 86 percent stake to a “management-led” group of insiders. Tellingly, Törnqvist’s family was also shown the door–most notably his son Fredrik whom he viewed as a successor.

In my earlier post on the implosion of the Lukoil deal, I wrote that the Treasury’s plan was “to put the squeeze on Gunvor, because it views the company as Putin’s cats’s paw as long as Törnqvist is in charge.” Today’s developments are consistent with that, and with a continuing squeeze that led him to self-reflect himself into retirement. The suspected cat’s paw has been amputated.

I wonder what-and/or who-persuaded him.

The company named an American, Gary Pederson, as the new CEO. That is not a coincidence, comrades.

Financial terms have not been disclosed. It would be very interesting to learn the price and the financing. Would the US want Törnqvist even as a creditor of the company? And have no doubt: it is the US that has the whip hand in what is going on here.

From the outside it is impossible to assess the justice of the US’s actions, and the accuracy of its suspicions. But they are what they are, as are the consequences. Namely, that there is no doubt that Gunvor is out of Russia’s orbit, and firmly within that of the US.