Noble closed at a two-month high on Monday, 28 January after gaining 2.0%. However, the company returned its gains yesterday and declined 2.8% to close at $1.215.

Macquarie’s Noble warrants

Bond Issuance is credit positive
Noble’s Board announced on 23 January that they were going to price CNY1bil in principal amount of 4% notes with a maturity date of 30 January 2016. After the announcement, Moody’s said that the bond issuance is “credit positive”.

Laura Acres, Senior Vice President from Moody’s said that “Moody’s understands the proceeds will be used primarily for the refinancing of existing debt and will therefore be leverage neutral.” The company justified the ratings saying that Noble has a sound liquidity profile with free cash which is sufficient to cover all of its total reported debt outstanding of US$5.7 mil as of September 2012.

Noble suspended on tax probe
The investigation on Noble’s unpaid taxes prompted the sell off yesterday. An official told reporters in Buenos Aires that the company was removed from the Argentina’s Grains Register because of an undisclosed amount of false invoices and potential use of third-party accounts. The tax official said that “while suspended, Noble must pay a tax rate of 25% to export grain, up from a previous 10%”.

Noble Argentine unit President Alfonso Romero said in a phone interview that the company has no comments to make and that business goes on as usual, they are “buying grains and exporting grains as they do in any other business day”.

However, he refused to comment about the additional implications for the company as well as whether they will appeal. (Bloomberg)

Noble earnings on 28 February
Noble is expected to report full year 2012 results next month. According to the average estimate of 17 analysts compiled by Bloomberg, Asia’s largest global trader and supply-chain manager is expected to report net income of $513.8 mil.

Source: Macquarie Research - 30 Jan 2013