Noble

Noble: 63% owned Gloucester Coal reported full year net profit that rose 67% yoy to A$54.6m due to rising prices, higher sales and accounting changes.
The co had offered guidance of A$57 - 59m earlier this month.
Core net profit, which excludes one-off and accounting items, came to A$61.0m, compared to A$36.4 m yoy.
Revenue came to A$306.6m, +34% yoy.
There was no dividend declared.

Gloucester has benefited from rising coal prices as a result of weather disruptions to Australia's main coal-producing regions during the southern summer and autumn. Gloucester's own operations were less affected than those of some of its rivals in the Hunter Valley and Bowen Basin coal regions.
Sales from Gloucester's mines region rose 17% yoy to 2.1m tons.
The co bought out privately held Donaldson Coal and Ellemby Holdings for A$585m during the year, as well as spending A$97.6m on a 20% stake in the Middlemount mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin.
Noble said the acquisitions put the company "in an attractive and sustainable position for the longer term".

Separately, Noble just concluded a roadshow in Europe with HSBC. A key client concern was the value proposition of traders in a backdrop of increasing direct contracts between producers and end-users. Noble believes this will be the exception and not the rule as traders like itself de-risk the supply chain for customers, especially during periods of supply disruptions, due to its multi-sourcing strategy. Other producers may be less likely to fulfil their delivery obligations increasing counterparty risks.

At 8x FY12E P/E, HSBC notes Noble is trading at a 23% discount to its 5yr PE average. Says, Noble delivered a 27% y-o-y increase in volumes in FY09 despite a slowdown in global demand and expects 27% earnings CAGR over FY10-13E supported by a highly liquid balance sheet. Maintains Overweight and TP $2.06.