‘Vitol nears deal to buy Noble’s oil liquids unit’

SINGAPORE/LONDON: Vitol Group, the world’s largest oil trader, is nearing a deal to buy Noble Group’s global oil liquids business, which analysts had valued at about US$1 billion (RM4.32 billion), said sources yesterday.

Noble is slashing jobs and selling assets as it slims drastically to cut debt after a crisis-wracked two years.

The company is focusing on its core Asian coal trading business. In July it agreed to sell its North American gas and power business to Mercuria.

Noble flagged earlier this month that it expects to sell its capital-intensive oil liquids business by the end of December, pushing back the timeline by a few months.

One of the sources said an announcement of Vitol’s deal with Noble could come as early as Monday.

Noble plunged into crisis in February 2015 when Iceberg Research accused it of overstating its assets by billions of dollars. That pain was exacerbated by a commodities downturn at the time.

The upheaval has also led to rating agency downgrades, fund raising and management changes, while Noble’s market value fell to less than US$400 million from US$6 billion in February 2015. Its stock is down about 80 per cent this year.

Noble reported a net loss of US$1.75 billion for the April-June period, citing a tough market.

Noble share trading was halted yesterday, pending the “announcement of a major transaction”, the company said.