Noble Group to sell Noble Americas Energy Solutions
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This transaction which is expected to generate both significant cash proceeds and profits to substantially enhance the balance sheet. This is in addition to fund raising initiative previously announced.
Noble has suffered repeated blows over the past year. Already hit by the global slump in commodities prices, the traders' stock has tanked since February 2015, when Iceberg Research published a report alleging that Noble's accounting treatments were creating "fabricated" profits.
Despite Noble's vociferous denials - it alleges Iceberg is run by a disgruntled former employee - and the implementation of a program of asset sales to bolster its balance sheet, the company was cut to junk status in January by ratings agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's.
In February the company reported its first annual loss since 1998, on the back of a $1.2 billion writedown on weak coal prices. ■