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Noble Group seeks to sweeten disputed debt deal after backlash

Bloomberg Published on Wed, Mar 14, 2018 / 3:55 PM GMT+8

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(Mar 14): Noble Group moved to sweeten the terms of a debt restructuring deal for some of the investors threatening to scupper the commodity trader’s last-gasp bid for survival.

As the company races to reach an agreement before a make-or-break bond maturity on March 20, it said in a statement Wednesday that it revised the terms for existing shareholders and some junior creditors whose holdings are being all but wiped out by the reorganisation proposed in January. Some had threatened to vote against the plan or take legal action against their treatment and what they said was a too-generous deal for management.

Noble is seeking to mollify opponents to its survival plan as it teeters on the brink of collapse in a saga that started three years ago when then-unknown Iceberg Research began publishing critiques of its accounting. Since then, the company has been battered by losses and its stock driven to near two-decade lows.