Noble Grp: Co. announced that it has approached banks for a loan as it seeks to refinance debt, according to three people familiar with the matter. The loan may total about $2b, accouring to sources. Noble has the equivalent of $7.2b of loan facilities maturing before the end of 2017, with $3.1bmaturing this year.
Separately, we like to highlight/caution on Noble’s upcoming results, with reference that latest earnings by Noble’s global peers have been largely disappointing, with Archer Daniels Midland reporting an 89% drop in net profit yesterday, attributed to its corn-and-oilseed-processing and grain-trading units, which were hurt by global volatility fueled by EU's debt crisis and weakness in oilseed processing due to excess plant capacity.
Recall that peer Cargill had in Jan also reported an 88% plunge in earnings. The weak results of both Co’s could be a harbinger of difficulty for others in the industry, and investors would be watchful on earnings releases by Louis Dreyfus and Glencore for confirmation of a slowdown among the commodities traders.
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