Scrapping quarterly reporting a bad move

ON April 28, Noble Group held its annual general meeting (AGM) for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016, then shocked the market at 10.37 pm on May 9 with profit guidance for its unaudited 2017 first-quarter results indicating a likely net loss of around US$130 million. By the end of the next trading day, its shares had fallen about a third. The company released its unaudited first quarter results after the close of trading that day. Noble blamed "dislocation in the coal market" - presumably this has nothing to do with President Donald Trump.

Various analysts rushed to cut their price targets by 50 per cent or more after the profit guidance. Shareholder Mano Sabnani said in a Straits Times article that the announcements were ". . . 'puzzling' after the annual and special general meetings in April . . . there were plenty of positive notes and the impression given was that the share consolidation was the last piece needed before a sustained turnaround". When th…