Noble Group Ltd.’s self-styled restructuring advocate has no intention of letting the beleaguered commodities trader get embroiled in chapter 11, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. After winning shareholder approval for the sale of its gas and power unit yesterday, chairman Paul Brough, who oversaw the liquidation of Lehman Brothers’s assets in Asia, said the company would likely find a buyer for its oil business by the month-end and get an extension on its debt covenant waiver beyond October. The company would then have the room to settle a repayment plan with its banks and avoid default, he said. “I don’t go into companies with the intention of liquidating them; I am a restructuring man,” Brough told the shareholder meeting. “I have only once ever been in a chapter 11 situation with Lehman Brothers, and I don’t wish to go there again. So rest assured, I’m doing all I can to avoid any kind of formal process, and I’m doing all I can to try and turn the business around.” Noble is fighting for its life more than two years into a crisis marked by accounting criticisms, a plunge in its securities and credit-rating downgrades. The trader is selling the units to shore up its finances after posting a $1.75 billion loss in the second quarter as net debt surged. Moody’s Investors Service has warned that the planned sales may be insufficient to cover its debt, while S&P Global Ratings sees non-repayment risk in the next six months.
