Noble's sea of red shows post-restructuring challenge for trader

SINGAPORE (Feb 20): Noble Group's profit warning on Monday was a sea of catastrophic numbers: fresh writedowns of about US$1.5 billion ($2 billion) will mean an annual loss approaching US$5 billion and leave the Asian commodity trader with negative assets of up to US$850 million.

See: Noble warns loss for 2017 may approach $6.6 bil

On top of the headline figures, there was also a smaller sum that's likely to cause concern for the creditors and managers trying to keep the troubled company afloat through a debt restructuring: the US$100 million quarterly loss posted by continuing operations - principally coal and iron ore - businesses that are meant to service the remaining debt once lenders take control of Noble through an equity swap.

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