Noble to dispose vessel for US$23.79m

COMMODITY trader Noble Group is planning to dispose a vessel registered in Hong Kong for a consideration of US$23.79 million to Aeolian Spirit Shipping, a Cyprus company.

On Friday, Noble said that its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Core Forte, had on June 15 entered into a memorandum of agreement with Aeolian Spirit Shipping and Transmed Shipping for the proposed sale of a Kamsarmax dry bulk carrier vessel.

Transmed Shipping is supposed to guarantee the performance of Aeolian Spirit Shipping.

Among other conditions for the deal to be finalised, the proposed disposal is subject to approval by the shareholders of Noble. The group will convene a special general meeting to be announced later.

The vessel, Ocean Forte, was built in 2015 and has a capacity of 81,616 deadweight tonnage. It is employed to service external customers
as well as Noble's internal freight requirements.

The gain on the proposed disposal would be about US$0.03 million, Noble said.

The vessel is currently mortgaged to a financial institution and part of the proceeds from the deal will be used by Noble to pay down the amounts owed under the relevant facility.

The net proceeds will be about US$8.4 million, and will form part of the assets proposed to be sold and transferred to a new entity under a proposed restructuring, or will be used towards repayment of facilities on other vessels owned by Noble which are also proposed to be sold and transferred to the new entity under the proposed restructuring.

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