Noble

Noble: proposes to issue USD-denominated perpetual capital securities, with in-principal approval to list on the SGX. Size of fund raising not mentioned, but follows nearly US$1.3bn of debt raised via loans, bonds since Jun this year. Net proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes, which could include significant future M&A in our view. JPM, RBS are the joint structuring advisors. Both banks and StanChart are the joint bookrunners and lead mgrs…

Separately, Noble also proposed to acquire up to 34.5% of East Energy Resources (EER), via exercise of free options at A$0.20/sh for aggregate A$6m. EER is an ASX listed coal explorer with key asset being an Exploration Permit for Coal, EPC 1149, which covers an area of ~900 sqkm in Eromanga Basin in Queensland. It has a JORC Inferred Resource of 1.2bn tons of coal. EER has book value of A$2.3m, NTA of A$0.2m, which compares with its open mkt valuation of A$6.1m.