Deadline to register for New Noble shares extended to March 19

Singapore

INVESTORS still holding on to shares of Noble Group, or "Old Noble", are getting a three-month extension till March 19, 2020 to register with the appointed trustee in order to get their shares in the new unlisted entity, Noble Group Holdings (Noble Holdings).

The original deadline for Old Noble shareholders to register with trustee, Lucid Issuer Services, was Dec 19, 2019.

Noble Holdings, or New Noble, was formed in the second half of 2018, after the embattled commodities trader underwent restructuring.

As Noble Group faced insolvency protection, shareholders approved a US$3.5 billion debt restructuring deal, which was completed in December last year. As part of the restructuring, all the assets and business of Old Noble were transferred to Noble Holdings.

In October 2018, Noble Group announced a deal with creditors to halve its senior debt, and give them 70 per cent of the company, while existing equity holders would see their stake diluted to 20 per cent, and management would control the remaining 10 per cent.

Under the terms of the restructuring, shareholders of Old Noble are entitled to receive one share in Noble Holdings for every 10 shares held in Old Noble. Fractional entitlements will be rounded up to the nearest whole share.

These entitlements require action by shareholders to register via www.lucid-is.com/nghlregistration.

To receive their allocation, Old Noble shareholders will need to register with Lucid online, and will subsequently be prompted to set up an account with Fluyd, a sister company of Lucid. After KYC (know your customer) checks, the share transfer will be conducted. The shares will only be issued in electronic form and held via investors' Fluyd accounts.

There will be no public market or publicly-quoted prices for these new shares. This comes after the Singapore authorities in 2018 blocked the relisting of the restructured company, citing significant uncertainties about the financial position of New Noble.

BT reported last December that simulated financial statements submitted by Noble Group to the Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX Regco) showed that New Noble's net asset value (NAV) of US$872.4 million as at Dec 31, 2017 could be about 40 per cent lower, and that its NAV as at March 31, 2018 could be 45 per cent lower. These adjustments would be in addition to the write-downs of more than US$2 billion already made by Noble Group in FY 2017.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and SGX Regco also said then that "it would be imprudent to allow the relisting, as investors will not be able to trade in New Noble's shares on an informed basis".

In August this year, Reuters reported that Noble Holdings plans to rebuild its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and core energy businesses, as it seeks to transform into an Asia-focused commoditiy trader.

According to industry sources, New Noble has set up a Singapore desk for LNG by hiring a former trader from Australia's Origin Energy, expanding its four-person LNG team in London.

The Noble saga first began in February 2015 after former employee Arnaud Vagner published reports anonymously under the name of Iceberg Research, and accused Noble of inflating its assets. Thereafter, Noble Group's market value of about US$6 billion was all but wiped out. This was followed by three troubled years, which saw Noble Group cut hundreds of jobs, sell billions of dollars of assets, take hefty write-downs, and change its CEOs and chairman. Shares of Noble Group have been suspended since November 2018.