Qualify
Before a mandate is accepted we confirm both sides: corporate standing, authority to transact, product availability or proof of funds, and the reputation behind the letterhead. Counterparties that cannot be verified are not introduced.
Commodity trade facilitation · Africa & Middle East
Physical commodities, delivered between counterparties who can perform.
CPL structures and facilitates physical commodity transactions, petroleum products first, between qualified buyers and sellers across Africa and the Middle East. We do not trade paper. We connect the parties, hold the procedure, and see the cargo through.
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Trading
Petroleum products first.
Petroleum products first.
Selected commodities beside them.
Our role is that of facilitator and intermediary: we bring a verified buyer and a verified seller to a transaction that both can close, and we manage the procedure between them. We take no title, carry no book, and have no interest in a deal beyond its completion.
Refined petroleum
EN590 10ppm diesel, Jet A-1, gasoline (Euro 5 / 95 & 98 RON), fuel oil and bitumen. FOB, CIF and tank-to-tank structures at major loading terminals serving African and Middle Eastern demand.
Crude & gas
Crude oil grades on term and spot basis; LPG and LNG on a case-by-case mandate where the offtaker and the logistics chain are established.
Fertiliser
Granular and prilled urea, and related nitrogen products, into agricultural and industrial buyers in Southern and East Africa.
Metals & alloys
Aluminium alloys, tungsten and related minor metals. Assay-backed, with origin and chain-of-custody documentation.
Minerals & coal
Thermal coal, chrome, manganese and iron ore from Southern African origins, where the mine, the rail or road allocation and the port stem can be confirmed.
Product lines are indicative. Every mandate is assessed on its own counterparties, logistics and documentation before CPL engages.
How we work
Qualified parties, a clear procedure,
Qualified parties, a clear procedure,
and someone accountable for both.
Structure
We agree the commercial terms, the delivery basis and a transaction procedure that a bank can follow: Incoterms, inspection, documentation sequence and payment instruments matched to the risk each party actually carries.
Deliver
From signed contract to discharged cargo, CPL stays in the transaction: logistics coordination, inspection and document flow, and the direct conversations that keep a deal moving when it stalls.
Procedure discipline
The market is full of noise.
The market is full of noise.
Our procedures are not.
The physical commodity market attracts more paper than product. CPL operates to a small set of principles that protect both sides of a transaction, and we walk away from mandates that do not meet them.
- No advance fees, no upfront payments against unverified documents, no payment before a contract is executed.
- Product is confirmed through independent inspection and bank-verifiable proof, never by letterhead alone.
- Payment instruments are issued bank-to-bank, on terms a compliance desk will accept.
- One point of accountability per transaction. No chains of brokers between buyer and seller.
- Where a party or a procedure cannot be verified, the transaction does not proceed.
Project delivery
From stalemate to execution.
CPL began as a project delivery partner for complex, multi-party undertakings across Africa and the Middle East. That capability remains, and it is what makes the trading work possible: a physical transaction in these markets is a stakeholder problem before it is a commercial one.
Stakeholder alignment
Influence mapping and engagement across government, industry, investors and communities, so that the parties who can stop a project are aligned before it starts.
Programme delivery
Translating strategy into scope, timelines, approvals and reporting, with documented processes and clear accountability at every stage.
Networks & market access
Cross-border relationships in Southern, East and West Africa and the Gulf that accelerate problem-solving and open transactions that would otherwise not be reachable.
Associated companies
CPL works alongside three
CPL works alongside three
specialist businesses.
Each is independently run. Together they cover the advisory, energy and technology ground that commodity and infrastructure transactions in Africa tend to require.
thirdoption.ai
Third Option
A private advisory firm for corporate consultancy, refocusing and crisis management, engaged where the internal team and the conventional process have both been tried. Its in-house Human Threat Intelligence and Insider Threat Programme (HTI-ITP) capability underpins counterparty and personnel assurance on sensitive mandates.
Visit juainvestments.co.zaJua Investments
A Cape Town-based independent power producer and owner-operator that develops, finances, builds and operates energy infrastructure across Africa, with 1.4 GW of shovel-ready solar, storage and hybrid projects and a further ~1.5 GW in late-stage development.
Visit aisoftdev.co.zaAi Software Development
A small, senior engineering firm that designs, builds and runs production-grade AI systems: autonomous agents, workflow automation, document intelligence and conversational AI, delivered end-to-end with clients owning their code.
Visit
Founder
Strategy rarely fails. What fails is the ground it has to land on.
Lars Magnusson
CPL is led by its founder, Lars Magnusson: Swedish by origin, South African by choice since 2012, with three decades across trading, investment, infrastructure and security in England, France, the United States, Tanzania and South Africa. His career began in proprietary trading on the NYSE and has since run through activist investing, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure investment in Africa, and government-adjacent stakeholder work at the highest level in South Africa.
He takes on the mandates where the first and second options have already been tried.
Contact
Serious enquiries,
Serious enquiries,
answered personally.
If you hold product, hold a mandate to buy, or have a project that has stalled between its parties, describe it in a few lines. We reply to every credible enquiry and to nothing else.
Cape Town, South Africa · Operating across Africa and the Middle East
Thank you. Your enquiry has been received and will be answered personally.