World Fuel Services

World Fuel operates an asset light business model, which competitors have attempted to mimic.In 1984, Paul Stebbins and Michael Kasbar founded Trans-Tec Services, Inc., a marine fuel brokerage company. It was headquartered in New York City. Over the next 10 years they grew the company and built a global network of offices. In 1995, Stebbins and Kasbar sold Trans-Tec to International Recovery Corporation, and the company was renamed World Fuel Services.International Recovery Corporation was founded in Miami in 1984 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1986. The company changed its name to World Fuel Services Corporation after acquiring Trans-Tec. Stebbins and Kasbar served as members of the board of directors and managed the marine business, prior to taking on the corporate positions they hold today.WFS was named as a co-defendant in various lawsuits since it had title to crude oil aboard a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway train which derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec on July 6, 2013, resulting in multiple deaths. Prior to the accident, WFS had been lauded as the only firm which had grown faster than technology giant Apple across a ten-year span.

Strategic acquisitions & divestitures

Since 2010, World Fuel has made a series of transformational acquisitions in software, financial technology, natural gas, power, and energy management:

Multi-Service Technology Solutions : A B2B fuel card and payment company that managed the AIR & SEA Card for the Department of Defense.U.S. Energy Services : Allowed World Fuel to expand into natural gas, power, and energy management. Traditionally a supplier of petroleum products, the firm used U.S. Energy Services as a foundation to expand with a series of six acquisitions. This would pave the way for the new Kinect Energy Group division. Kinect Energy provides "energy management advisory and fulfillment services in over 30 countries and energy reporting in over 150 countries in almost every language and currency."Avinode : An on-demand market place for aircraft charter, similar to vehicle for hire mobile apps.Other acquisitions between 2010 and 2014: Carter Energy, Western Petroleum, Lakeside Oil, Petro Air Corp, Watson Fuels, Ascent Aviation, Hiller Group, South Minnesota Lubes, Indianhead Oil, Nordic Camp Supply, Shell Oil Gibraltar, MH Aviation Services Pty, Yacht Fuel Services, and Colt International.In 2014, WFS divested interests in a North Dakota Bakken crude oil transloading and trading venture. During the initial Bakken boom there were no pipelines going to the region, forcing product to be shipped by railcar. The venture, with 1,100 railcars, shipped 20 Mb/d as it was one of only six options for producers to move crude oil out of the area. In 2018, two years after launching a freight factoring unit under Multi Service, WFS quickly divested it to BAMFi. In 2020, World Fuel sold its Multi-Service subsidiary to Corsair Capital for $375 million.