Noble Group

China does not import a great percentage of corn, but of course, with China's huge base, any small percentage will translate into a big absolute number. For US, quite a lot of corn are made into ethanol to be blended into gasoline, which could amplify the drought effect in US.

If US lowers the percentage of ethanol blended into gasoline or discourages corn based ethanol, I think, there should still be enough corn for the world.

There are about 200,000 pig farms in china, needless to say pig farming is not very well regulated but it is very big business in china and even big companies are in on it. Lenovo 2nd largest PC maker also owns a pig farming business and many other big companies in china do so the same.

To produce pigs is a big environmental problem, needs a lot land of space causes a lot of pollution - big water pollution problems. I read fresh water not only for feeding pigs but also to clear out the fecal crap from the pig pens regularly, this crap gets washed down into drains that end up in rivers and lakes that kill the fish there and people who drink it become sick. That's why Jim Rogers commented china has a water problem, not water shortage but problem - big pollution problem.

so I guess for investing the winners are the companies that either supply the pig feed or in the business of cleaning that water.

Does anyone know where i can find a graph for the historical earnings per share? Most sites only give the EPS ttm, but i am looking for a graph of records over a few years. Have tried running various searches on this forum already.

Cheers,
Charlie

(23-11-2012, 11:00 AM)charliewong Wrote: Does anyone know where i can find a graph for the historical earnings per share? Most sites only give the EPS ttm, but i am looking for a graph of records over a few years. Have tried running various searches on this forum already.

Cheers,
Charlie

The easiest will be to use the bloomberg terminal but public access to it is limited. There are probably 2 terminals in the National Library and you can sign in to use for an hour interval.

FT.com & Morningstar.com offer a good summary for the past 3 / 5 years

Sometimes, annual reports may disclose a financial summary which shows the performance for past 5 years. To get a longer time frame, you can just obtain past years annual report.

The best (though most time consuming) is to data crunch it yourself. By doing so, you can filter out the non-recurring earnings and also have a better understanding of how the trend changes.

The fall of coal barron and blame game on Noble Group via Blackwood

http://www.businessday.com.au/business/t...2g684.html

Tinkler family sitting on $1.4bn
Date
March 16, 2013
Rick Feneley and Paddy Manning
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Nathan Tinkler leaves the New South Wales Supreme Court on Friday. Photo: Rob Homer
Embattled coal baron Nathan Tinkler has declared his family trust is worth $1.4 billion, but he admits he is ''asset rich, cash poor''.

In the year ending 2011, Mr Tinkler's taxable income was just $9834. He expects it to be about the same next time, he revealed on Friday during a liquidator's examination of his failed private entity, Mulsanne Resources.

Mr Tinkler was being grilled in the Supreme Court in Sydney over Mulsanne's failure to pay a $28.4 million debt, but was later asked to detail his personal finances.

Tinkler Group Family Trust, he said, had assets worth about $1.4 billion and was controlled by his wife, Rebecca, who could distribute money to him tax free.

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''Is that what happens?'' asked Robert Newlinds, SC, for the liquidator. ''Your wife gives you money from time to time?''

Mr Tinkler said: ''I'm very lucky, yes.''

The trust was established before the former mine electrician, 36, hit pay dirt, selling his stake in Macarthur Coal in 2008 for $440 million.

Mr Newlinds asked Mr Tinkler how much he might draw from

the fund at a time. He wasn't

sure. Could he round it to the nearest $100,000? No. The nearest million? No.

Asked if his wife was the unit holder or trustee, Mr Tinkler said he believed so, but he would need to check the details.

He said they had a total of about $250,000 in bank accounts. But Mr Tinkler also agreed that he was asset rich but cash poor.

The assets in the family trust included Patinack Farm, the horse stud that he valued at $100 million after debts - ''at least''.

They also included a major stake in Whitehaven Coal, Hunter Ports, Hunter Rail and copper explorer Aston Metals.

Mr Tinkler said the value of Tinkler Group was "not really" linked to the Whitehaven share price, which closed at $2.36 on Friday - down more than 25 per cent this year and less than half the $5.58 peak after last year's merger with listed Aston Resources and private Boardwalk Investments.

Mr Tinkler owns 196 million Whitehaven shares, which, at today's price of $2.34, makes his stake worth about $463 million.

Mr Tinkler said the stock was a "very illiquid" stock and it was "very hard to get a large strategic stake" in Whitehaven.

The numbers swirling around Friday's evidence clashed at times. Mr Newlinds turned Mr Tinkler's mention of $1.4 billion for the trust into $1.2 billion at next mention. He asked Mr Tinkler if that included liabilities. Yes, about $600 million. So that left a net worth of $600 million, Mr Tinkler agreed.

Earlier in the day, Mr Tinkler had put the total debts for the Tinkler group at ''probably around $500 million''.

Mr Tinkler has told the court that, as the global price for coal collapsed, he discovered he could not raise the money to fulfil the deal from financiers or, from his preferred source, by selling his royalty stream from the Middlemount coalmine to the Noble Group. Noble owns 51 per cent of Blackwood.

The coal boss reckoned he had a verbal agreement with Noble director Will Randall, and that they had done much bigger deals in the past this way.

But Mr Newlinds - challenging this claim - persistently quizzed Mr Tinkler on why he kept ''no email, no letter, no note'' that recorded these discussions.

A day before the deadline to settle on July 19 last year, Mr Tinkler told the court he could not reach Mr Randall.

He ''just went off line … I pretty quickly worked out I had been hung out to dry''.

Noble Group, Asia’s largest publicly traded commodity supplier by sales, said first-quarter profit plunged 62%, weighed down by a loss at its agricultural unit.

Net income was US$41.3 million ($51.2 million)in the three months ended March 31, from US$110.1 million a year earlier, the Hong Kong- based company said today in a statement. Sales slid 1% to US$22.6 billion.

The company reported a loss of US$66.6 million from supply chains in the quarter at its agricultural business and said it had cut expenses and finance costs in the period. When asked on a conference call on Feb. 28 about earnings drivers for the coming six to 12 months, Chief Executive Officer Yusuf Alireza said one of the drivers of the company’s performance “going forward” would be a recovery at its agricultural unit and potential growth opportunities across all its businesses.

“We continue to execute on our strategy, moving to an asset-light model and strengthening our balance sheet while selectively investing to build future origination volumes across our diversified product platforms,” Chief Executive Officer Yusuf Alireza said in a separate statement. “In a difficult market environment, our efforts to control costs and focus on core business competencies are starting to have an impact.”

Shares advanced 0.2% to $1.115 at the close in Singapore. The announcement was made after the end of trade. The stock is down 3.5% this year, compared with the 8.4% increase in the benchmark Straits Times index.

Noble is committed to being “light” on asset ownership, CEO Alireza said in February. The company, which also said that month it will sell a stake in its palm unit to Wilmar International Ltd., continues to review asset-sale opportunities, Chief Financial Officer Robert Van Der Zalm said in February.

Revenue at its agricultural unit dropped 12%, the company said today. Sales at its energy unit, its biggest, also declined 10% to US$14.6 billion.

Noble in trouble? can it really survive the fall in commodities price? It can be kind of frightening if really dollar keep rising and developing country face liquidity risk with flow back to europe and usa?

Saw the way the Indian rupee fall, it looks like liquidity flow in extreme. Even local investor goes into a sell mode that's like currency run!

seems so... also noble is quite heavily geared, not a good counter for value investors I guess

Wondering if Noble has sold their stake...

Chinese miner moves to privatise Yancoal
Date
July 9, 2013 - 11:13AM
Peter Ker and Brian Robins
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Short-lived ... Yancoal has only been listed on the ASX since last year. Photo: Reuters
It was the big share market listing of 2012, but just one year later the Chinese majority shareholders of Yancoal want to take the vehicle private.

Yancoal told the ASX today that its biggest shareholder, Chinese group Yanzhou, has enquired about buying the 22 per cent of shares that it does not own.

In morning trade, Yancoal shares are up 7.1 per cent to 75 cents.

The offer is too preliminary and non-binding to constitute a formal offer, but the idea is sufficiently developed for Yancoal to publish the possible terms.

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Yancoal shareholders would be offered 0.91 CHESS depository interests in Yanzhou for each Yancoal share held, under the still theoretical offer.

Yancoal has existed in its current form for barely one year since the $2.1 billion acquisition of Gloucester Coal in June 2012.

That deal gave Yancoal an Australian listing for the first time, after eight years of operating in Australia and several acquisitions.

Prior to Gloucester, Yancoal bought Felix Resources, Syntech as well as further coal assets from the likes of Wesfarmers and IMC resources.

The Gloucester deal gave Yancoal the ASX listing that Australian regulators had demanded before the end of 2012 as part of the Felix deal.

For those reasons, Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board – which sits within Federal Treasury – will be watching today’s ructions closely.

The attempt to take Yancoal private appears to be a response to the recent falls in coal prices, that has threatened the survival of many coal mines in New South Wales and Queensland.

Since listing at more than $1.34 just over a year ago, Yancoal shares have never again enjoyed such heights.

In Hong Kong trading yesterday, Yanzhou Coal’s shares closed at $HK5.37, down 19 cents.

From the high of $US350 a tonne for hard coking coal a few years ago, it is now trading at around $US180 a tonne, with steaming coal, which is mostly used in power generation, fetching around $US85 a tonne.

Yancoal produces mostly middling quality steaming coal from a series of coal mines in NSW and some modest quality coking coal, which is used for so-called pulverised coal injection in the steelmaking process, from two mines in Queensland.

The four independent directors of Yancoal said it may take some time to evaluate the offer.

‘‘The proposal is indicative, non binding and not capable of acceptance nor does it constititute a binding offer by Yanzhou,’’ Yancoal said of the offer.

Yanzhou is listed on stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Shanghai and New York.

(09-07-2013, 09:16 PM)greengiraffe Wrote: Wondering if Noble has sold their stake...

Yep, i think they sold their stake to Yanzhou Coal to create Yancoal Australia. Noble is still selling the coal for them though.