Noble Group’s improper accounting led to the company’s collapse and destroyed many investors’ savingsNoble Group, the commodity trader whose losses, spectacular collapse, court dramas and multibillion-dollar restructuring dominated headlines in Singapore over several years, was fined by local authorities as investigations ended after an investigation that began in 2018.
The sum “is a little small”, said Terence Chua, a senior research analyst at Phillip Securities Research. “It sends a message but for investors, there’s not a lot of comfort because the money is lost and this took such a long time.” Once Asia’s largest commodity trader with a market value of more than $10bn, Noble Group was forced to restructure after years of losses and accusations of improper accounting, which the company denied. The turmoil at the trader — which had businesses spanning coal to agriculture — destroyed many investors’ savings while generating millions in fees for lawyers.
The investigations found that Noble Group and one of its units had applied an “incorrect accounting treatment” to several long-term marketing agreements with mine owners and coal producers, the authorities said. This “inflated” the reported profits and net assets of the company and its unit.