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Man who helped bury Lehman turns to saving troubled trader Noble

Bloomberg Published on Tue, May 16, 2017 / 7:15 AM GMT+8

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LONDON (March 15): As Noble Group investors head for the door, the embattled commodity trader has turned to a man whose resume is a roll-call of Asia’s highest-profile corporate collapses.

Paul Brough, a British-born former KPMG LLP executive, was appointed chairman of Noble last week as the company’s stock and bonds plummeted. The Hong Kong restructuring veteran’s most recent jobs include liquidating Lehman Brothers’s assets in Asia, running what emerged from the bankruptcy of plantation developer Sino-Forest Corp., and restructuring failed fishmeal supplier China Fishery Group Ltd.

Reviving Noble Group will be no easy trick after two turbulent years marked by falling commodities prices, losses, mounting debt and accusations of improper accounting. Its stock market value has shrunk to less than US$600 million ($839 million) from more than US$10 billion in 2010. The latest collapse came after Noble reported another loss for the first quarter.