Noble Group Rose, Barely, On “Sufficient Cash” And “Satisfactory Performance”

In addition, Noble Group said it planned to release its results and PWC auditing results early on Monday, August 10.

Most of those losses came toward the end of last week, when Noble Group’s shares fell by more than a fifth over Thursday and Friday. It added that the board has become aware of what it labelled “misleading information” being spread about the company in what it said appears to be an attempt to manipulate the company’s share price. The presence of short sellers also added to pressure on the shares.

It can fund the US$735 million bond redemption due August 4, and will still have readily available cash of well over US$1 billion, it said. Hong Kong-headquartered Noble offered few details about potential suitors, saying only that management had been approached by a number of parties about potential financing and/or investment options and that there was no guarantee of a deal in the near future. Noble’s shares have lost more than 60 percent since February when a groupcalling itself Iceberg Research published criticism of the firm’s accounting, dragging the company’s market value to S$2.98 billion as of July 31, the smallest among the 30 stocks on the benchmark Straits Times Index.

Also in the release today, the board addressed other allegations being made about the company.

Noble Group, Asia’s biggest commodity trader, said yesterday it has been approached by several parties with financing and investment options, as it stepped up its campaign to reverse a dramatic plunge in its share price on concerns about its accounting practices.

Noble also has around $15bn in bank lines, the release noted.

Its second-quarter results would show that net fair value gains-the accounting method of valuing assets that Noble has been most criticized for-had fallen, and operating income and profits “remain positive”, the company said.

Noble brought forward the results because it believes “misleading and untruthful information” about its financial situation will be resolved with the publication of the quarterly results, the Singapore-listed company said.