Hong Kong

Noble Group Ltd., the commodity trader battling to survive, warned that it’ll report another vast loss including from the operations meant to sustain a revamped business, and while it signaled progress in debt-restructuring talks, hurdles to a deal remain, Bloomberg News reported. The Hong Kong-based company will report a net loss of $1.73 billion to $1.93 billion for the final quarter of last year, potentially bringing losses for 2017 to almost $5 billion, it said in a statement early on Monday. That meant it had a negative net-asset position of $650 million to $850 million at Dec. 31.

Noble Group Ltd. reached a deal to restructure $3.5 billion in debt, saving the troubled commodity trader from bankruptcy at the cost of handing control to creditors and all but wiping out current shareholders, Bloomberg News reported. After a three-year crisis marked by massive losses, writedowns and controversial accounting, Noble management, bank creditors, and bondholders reached an in-principle agreement that will convert half of the debt -- roughly $1.7 billion -- into new equity, the company said on Monday.

Crisis-hit commodity trader Noble Group is moving closer toward a debt restructuring deal with its lenders, the Financial Times reported. The company’s chairman Paul Brough told shareholders at a meeting in Singapore on Thursday that talks had been “constructive” and were “moving forward”. “I’m hopeful that we will reach a conclusion at some point in the near future,” said Mr Brough, a restructuring expert who was appointed chairman in May.

Noble Group is closing down its London oil desk and winding down its Asia oil operations, sources familiar with the matter said, as heavy losses and high debt force what was once Asia's biggest commodities trader to restructure, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The closures follow the sale of its larger U.S. oil trading business to Vitol, announced in October, and a nine-month loss of some $3 billion reported in November.

Troubled commodity trader Noble Group on Thursday said it had obtained a waiver from creditors to extend covenants on a loan facility to May next year, giving it more time in its debt restructuring negotiations, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The covenants had already been extended twice until mid-December, as Noble battles to recover from two years of crisis.

A deal between Noble Group, the troubled commodity trader, and its creditors could involve a debt-for equity swap that would further dilute existing shareholders, its chairman has warned. Speaking at a shareholder meeting to approve the sale of its oil business to Vitol Group, Noble’s Paul Brough said there would be “more pain” ahead as it tries to restructure its debts to stave off the threat of insolvency, the Financial Times reported. “As we go forward, I think there will be more pain, but there is hope as well,” Mr Brough was reported as saying by Bloomberg.

Noble Group Ltd., the embattled commodities trader, faces several significant deadlines as it wrestles with a $3.5 billion debt restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. Once Asia’s largest commodity trader, Noble’s decline since 2015 has been marked by losses, concern it won’t be able to pay its debt and accusations from long-time foe Iceberg Research that it inflated the value of some contracts. The next few weeks will be crucial, as Noble looks to push its debt restructuring through. One focus is Dec. 20.

Noble Group Ltd.’s long-time foe Iceberg Research made a fresh attack on the embattled commodity trader on Tuesday, saying that its balance sheet may still mask problems and that the company’s bid to restructure its obligations won’t lead to a turnaround, Bloomberg News reported. “The problem with this company is not only that assets have been wildly overvalued. Some liabilities have probably been drastically undervalued,” Iceberg said in an open letter to the creditors of the Hong Kong-based company.

Noble Group, the commodity trader wrestling with a $3.5bn debt pile, has continued its fire sale of assets, offloading an ethanol plant in Indiana for a loss, the Financial Times reported. The Singapore-listed company on Monday announced a deal to sell North Americas South Bend Ethanol (NASBE) business to Zeeland, a privately-owned US group, for just $12.5m – or $17m including inventories and working capital. At the end of September, NASBE was carried in Noble’s books at a valuation of just over $80m.

A default by Noble Group Ltd. now “appears probable,” according to Fitch Ratings Inc., which cut the Hong Kong-based commodity trader’s credit rating by two steps, adding further pressure on executives as they seek to hammer out fresh terms with their lenders, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch cut the trader to CC from CCC, deeper into junk territory, according to a statement on Friday that came just before the close of trade in Asia.