Iceberg hits out at Noble after AGM

ANONYMOUS outfit Iceberg Research, which since mid-February has been launching attacks against commodity trader Noble Group's accounting practices, has weighed in on Noble's lack of transparency at its annual general meeting (AGM).

At the AGM on Friday, Noble's founder and chairman, Richard Elman, avoided shareholders' questions related to the group's accounting practices, and instead steered the AGM's focus to the resolutions on Noble's financial statements and the reports of its directors and auditors.

Mr Elman reiterated at the AGM that it considers the Iceberg matter finished. "We have started legal proceedings and look forward to challenging their inaccurate, unreliable and misleading claims in a public court," he said.

He added that the group's management will not be revisiting details of these allegations at the AGM.

"In these amazing exchanges between a chairman and his own shareholders, we see that Richard Elman thinks he does not answer to anyone, not even to his own shareholders," Iceberg said in emailed comments.

Iceberg added that the AGM could have been the opportunity to be more transparent. Instead, "the man who has always been the real boss of Noble, showed his true colours", it said.

Iceberg also claims that Noble's legal action against them was "designed to distract the public's attention to avoid talking about the third report". "Noble already knows they will go nowhere with this legal action," Iceberg said.

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