Clock is ticking for Noble to prove its business model is viable

COULD Noble Group go the way of Swiber? So went whispers along corridors and among pantry conversations earlier this month as the group's shares plunged to an intra-day low of 12.2 Singapore cents.

That gave the firm a market value of some S$1.6 billion, a dramatic reduction in size from February last year when it first came under attack from a little-known research group. Stripping away the US$505 million it raised from a recent cash call, Noble's original equity value now approaches Iceberg Research's doomsday valuation of US$410 million - placed at a time when Noble recorded US$5 billion of equity in its books.

The good news is that such a dire scenario, like what Swiber has found itself in, does not seem imminent for Noble. After all, the group had put the worst of its financing woes behind it in t…