Noble Group

[greengiraffe]

Wah say that is a positive way of looking at paying so much to acquire a blackbox that has constantly been cash flow negative only until recently.

I have been a holder of Olam since ipo and never understood the model at least from the cashflow perspective. Perhaps I should start to think big like swf in order to appreciate the rationale behind such strategic acquisitions.

Incidentally, newwater technology originator Hyflux also falls into such category but the bubble seem to have burst for the time being...

GG

Over the year, Temasak has proven their ability to take care of the interest of Singapore. The logic of the purchase is not something difficult to understand. 1 potential profit from the raising food price in long run. 2 same as China, to gain control on supply chain to enhance food security of Singapore.

[investor2014]

NOBLE Group led the value gainers on the Singapore Exchange on Friday after its first quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations.
The commodity giant saw its shares rise to S$1.28 each, before trading around S$1.27, up 4.5 cents, or 3.67 per cent. A staggering 36.33 million shares changed hands.
The Hong Kong-based trader said on Thursday evening that net profit more than trebled to US$152 million (S$190 million) from a year ago, led by better performance in the energy and metals segment and lower losses in the agriculture business.
The firm notched up an operating profit of US$497.5 million from supply chains - its second-highest quarterly operating profit ever - which was 30 per cent higher than a year ago.

[investor2014]

NOBLE Group led the value gainers on the Singapore Exchange on Friday after its first quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations.
The commodity giant saw its shares rise to S$1.28 each, before trading around S$1.27, up 4.5 cents, or 3.67 per cent. A staggering 36.33 million shares changed hands.
The Hong Kong-based trader said on Thursday evening that net profit more than trebled to US$152 million (S$190 million) from a year ago, led by better performance in the energy and metals segment and lower losses in the agriculture business.
The firm notched up an operating profit of US$497.5 million from supply chains - its second-highest quarterly operating profit ever - which was 30 per cent higher than a year ago.

looks like very good results.

price up more than 3% today

[greengiraffe]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/...e-20140808

PUBLISHED AUGUST 08, 2014
Noble's Q2 profit up 5% as volumes rise
BYANDREA SOH
sandrea@sph.com.sg @AndreaSohBT

NET profit for Noble Group rose 5 per cent to US$65.8 million for the second quarter on the back of larger volumes , even as the group continues to transform itself into an asset-light firm through partnerships across all of its three product platforms.
The largest commodity trader in Asia recorded revenue of US$23.6 billion for the three months ended June 30, up from US$20.9 billion a year ago.
It moved 72.3 million tonnes of goods, compared with last year's 57.7 million tonnes.
"This is an encouraging performance," said CEO Yusuf Alireza in a teleconference briefing. The group's asset-light strategy coupled with its competence in moving commodities has started to impact the bottomline, he said.

[CityFarmer]

The share price stays around $1.295...

(not vested)

Noble drops most since 2012 as CIC cuts stake

Noble Group, Asia’s biggest commodity trader by revenue, fell the most in almost two years in Singapore trading as its second-largest shareholder offered to sell part of its stake.

China Investment Corp.’s Best Investment unit offered 300 million Noble shares at $1.32 to $1.35 in a block trade, according to a term sheet. A trade of that size took place at $1.32 at 9:16 a.m. Singapore time.

Noble tumbled 7.5% to $1.29 at 10:12 a.m. Singapore time, the biggest decline since Nov. 14, 2012. The benchmark Straits Times index lost 0.8%.

Prior to the trade, Best Investment held 930.6 million shares, or about 14%, of Hong Kong-based Noble. The CIC offer was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

Noble, which last month reported second-quarter profit rose 5% on greater volumes, is seeking to switch from having full control of commodity assets to favoring investments in groups that manage such businesses. The change will allow the trader to secure raw materials for resale without commitments to operate production facilities.
http://www.theedgesingapore.com/the-dail...stake.html

[Shrivathsa]

Originally bought at $2.1137,

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=n...gmiy6i5IWI,

so, approximately 38% loss.

I wanted to find out who has bought the stake, no news on that.

Any guesses?

[freedom]

not true.

CIC's shares have gone through a bonus event. 6 for 11. the price after adjustment is around 1.37 only.

With all dividends received, probably around break-even.

[Shrivathsa]

Interesting, thanks freedom.

[ngcheeki]

The following is a short report from L&T this morning on Noble.

Noble Group ($1.30, down 10 cents)’s second largest shareholder
China Investment Corp (CIC) has sold 300mln shares yesterday in a
married trade at $1.32 a share, reducing its stake from 13.8% to 9.4%.
Noble understands that the placement is part of CIC’s overall portfolio
rebalancing exercise and that as a long term investor CIC will continue
to support the company’s business strategy.
Separately, Noble’s Chairman and founder Richard Elman bought
6.056mln shares from the open market at an average price of $1.3039/
shares, increasing his holding to 20.86% of the company. Richard
Elman had bought close to 22mln shares between $1-1.19 from 2011-
2013. Before that he sold 59.3mln shares at $1.69 in early 2011 and
135mln shares to CIC in 2009 at $2.1137.
While CIC bought their stake from Richard Elman in 2009 at an average
cost of $2.1137/share, we note that if adjusted for the 6 for 11 bonus
issue, their effective cost would be $1.368/share. Based on their latest
sale at $1.32/share, it would mean that they made a 3.5% loss on the
300mln shares sold.
CIC’s share sale coinciding with the completion of the sale of 51%
of Noble’s agricultural unit to COFCO and its consortium partners
suggests that likely rebalancing their exposure to put more emphasis
into the agricultural part of the value chain.
It is currently not known who the buyers of the 300mln shares are and
the $1.32 level could potentially become a near term resistant for the
stock if it is not locked-up by strong hands such as big institutional
shareholders with a longer term view.
Fact is, commodity related stocks have been hard hit in the past quarter,
dragged down by very weak commodity prices on the back of excess
supplies and weak demand from emerging countries such as China as
well as developed countries in Europe.
Given the unexpected share sale triggered a technical break-down
for the stock, we are downgrading our call to HOLD (we note that it’s
current valuations are also in line with its sector peers such as Olam
and Wilmar). We had upgraded the stock to BUY in May’14 when the
stock was at $1.22 (we would revisit the stock around this level again,
which coincides with its 200 day MA).

[greengiraffe]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companie...n-payments

Noble receives US$3.36b in payments
By
Andrea Sohsandrea@sph.com.sg@AndreaSohBT
16 Oct5:50 AM
Singapore

NOBLE Group, which on Wednesday said it has received US$3.36 billion due to it, has had its ratings affirmed at BBB- by Fitch Ratings.

The largest commodities trader in Asia by revenue said it had received US$1.5 billion in cash for the sale of its 51 per cent stake in