Hot stock: Noble tumbles as shares trade ex-rights

SHARES of Noble Group tumbled more than 24 per cent on Tuesday as they traded ex-rights.

At 9.30am, Noble was trading at around S$0.162 a share, down S$0.053, or 24.651 per cent. The counter eventually closed at S$0.18 a share, down 16.3 per cent. Some 226.5 million shares changed hands.

The one-for-one rights share was issued at S$0.11 a share - a discount of about 63 per cent to the closing price of S$0.30 a share on June 2.

The rights issue is supported by Noble's executive chairman Richard Elman, who is taking up 9.58 per cent of the new shares, while sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp's subsidiary Best Investment Corporation has undertaken to subscribe its full entitlement, representing 9.65 per cent of the rights shares.

Noble plans to use the US$500 million raised to further cut its debt and for deployment into high-return businesses.