Noble Group

[level13]

Yancoal is an associate not an investment, it is not required to mark to market. Impairment test is discretionary and subjective

That said, the biz model of Nobel seems far riskier than say Olam

PS u can see my discussion on Olam when it was attacked

According to the SGX rulebook:

An associate company is a company in which at least 20% but not more than 50% of its shares are held by the listed company or group.

So if we go strictly by the book, Yancoal cannot be called an associate company. That said, it will be an investment and Noble have to mark to market this investment.

One reason why short sellers and other parties like to target commodity counters is because the assets they have are very much susceptible to market forces. As a result, management will always apply their assumptions to value these assets. In some cases these assumptions are overly generous and thus making the opportunity to attack them obvious.

Auditors wouldn't be bothered. At the end of the day, they just collect their fees and put in the usual disclaimers.