Hot stock: Noble gains on plans to sell agriculture unit

SHARES of Noble Group jumped 7.7 per cent early Wednesday after the commodity trader said it was in advanced talks to sell its agriculture unit to boost liquidity.

Noble traded at 42 Singapore cents, up by 3 Singapore cents, as at 9.22am with 36.6 million shares having changed hands.

Media reports had said that Noble was planning to sell its 49 per cent stake in Noble Agri to Chinese grain trader Cofco for between US$700 million and US$750 million. Cofco paid about US$1.5 billion in 2014 for 51 per cent of the business.

Noble announced the night before that it was "in advanced discussions with potential purchases on both this sale and other strategic transactions, but no definitive or legally binding documents have yet been signed".

The company needs to raise at least U$500 million by February or it could risk downgrades by credit rating agencies.