<article><a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Noble+Group+Ltd">Noble Group Ltd</a>.’s Richard Elman boosted his stake in the company that he founded as its shares sank to the lowest level since 2008.</article>

<a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Noble+Group+Ltd">Noble Group Ltd</a>.’s Richard Elman boosted his stake in the company that he founded as its shares sank to the lowest level since 2008.
Elman bought 10 million shares in Asia’s top commodity trader on Friday for S$3.19 million ($2.2 million), raising his holding to 22.13 percent, according to a statement to the Singapore exchange on Monday. After news of the purchase, the stock lost as much as 8.8 percent to 31 Singapore cents, and was at 31.5 cents at 9:27 a.m. local time.
Noble Group sank last week after Standard &amp; Poor’s joined Moody’s Investors Service in cutting its rating on the company to junk amid concern about its liquidity as commodity prices slump. The shares lost 65 percent in 2015 amid attacks on its accounts by critics including a group calling itself Iceberg Research. The company rejected the allegations and has sought to reassure investors by cutting debt, selling assets and boosting transparency, with Elman pledging to shareholders last June to “right the damage.”
Elman, a former scrap-yard worker who dropped out of school at 15, built Noble Group into Asia’s largest commodity trading company by revenue. He worked at another trader, Phibro, before setting up his own firm with $100,000 in savings in Hong Kong. He remains Noble Group’s biggest owner, according to data tracked by Bloomberg.
<h3 class="center">Stake Sale</h3>
Noble Group has made efforts to buoy its creditworthiness as its shares slumped. It agreed in December to sell the remaining 49 percent of its agricultural unit to Cofco Corp., China’s top food company, for at least $750 million to reduce debt. Cofco already owned the other 51 percent of NobleAgri, bought for $1.5 billion in 2014.
Even after the deal, S&amp;P said that liquidity, or short-term financing, was no longer strong enough to sustain Noble Group’s investment-grade credit rating. The outlook for the commodity trader’s “capital raising could be complicated by depressed” raw-materials markets, it said.
Noble Group said last week that an increase in calls for collateral, or demands it set aside more cash to guarantee trades, after the downgrades was still below the $100 million to $200 million range that Chief Executive Yusuf Alireza had estimated in comments to analysts last year. The company will receive about $200 million after selling receivables to shore up its balance sheet, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
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(Bloomberg)

Singapore: Noble Group chairman Elman increases holding as shares sink

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Singapore: Noble Group chairman Elman increases holding as shares sink

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