Pressure grows on Noble Group: Vitol says oil deal 'complicated'

London

VITOL Group's negotiations to buy Noble Group Ltd's oil trading unit are "very complicated" and may not end in a deal, the chief executive officer of Vitol said, adding to pressure on his Hong Kong-based rival.

The sale of the oil business is crucial to the survival of Noble Group, once Asia's largest commodity trader. It is rushing to sell the unit in order to pay back about US$1 billion of debt under its secured credit facilities, of which the largest matures in mid-January.

"We're engaged; we have been talking to Noble," Ian Taylor told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday in the first public confirmation by the world's largest independent oil trader that it is bidding for its riv…