Noble chairman continues to lift stake in doubly-junked firm

NOBLE Group founder and chairman Richard Elman has pumped more money into buying shares in the commodity trader on the open market.

He paid S$3.34 million for another 10 million shares on Monday, bringing his stake up to 22.28 per cent, according to a Singapore Exchange filing on Tuesday morning.

This was after he bought 10 million shares last Friday for S$3.19 million, raising his stake to 22.13 per cent, going by a bourse filing on Monday morning.

The stock fell as much as 8.8 per cent to 31 Singapore cents in early trading on Monday. It ended the day half a cent or 1.5 per cent down at S$0.335.

Noble said in a separate bourse filing on Tuesday that it would hold a special general meeting on Jan 28 to get shareholders' nod for its sale of its agricultural unit, Noble Agri.

The group's credit rating was recently cut to junk status by two credit rating agencies, Moody's and Standard & Poor's.