Noble Group looks to raise $2.5 billion to refinance debt

The commodity trader is in the market for a one-year borrowing base revolving credit facility.

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Noble Group looks to raise $2.5 billion to refinance debt
The company logo of Noble Group is displayed at its office in Hong Kong, China January 22, 2016. Reuters

Singapore energy major Noble Group is looking to raise $2.5 billion to refinance existing debt, Reuters reported.

The commodity trader, which was battered by a $1.2 billion writedown on weak coal prices, is in the market for a one-year borrowing base revolving credit facility.

The loan includes a US$1.5 billion committed loan and a US$1 billion uncommitted loan, the report said.

The new funds will be used to refinance and combine two existing loans including a $1.1 billion letter of credit facility and a $1 billion existing revolver.

Noble said last month it had a $1.67 billion loss for 2015, its first annual loss in almost two decades.

The shares of Noble, one the world's largest traders of commodities, have lost nearly 55 percent in the last 12 months, following an accounting scandal. It was alleged that the company had inflated its assets by billions of dollars, a claim Noble rejected.

In December, Standard & Poor's and Moody's had cut Noble's investment grade ratings to junk following the scandal.

The Singapore-listed firm, Asia's biggest commodities trader, had said in February it was making progress on its revolving credit facility, which expires in May.

"We have $2.2 billion of a revolver. Clearly we have approved the term sheet to a number of our core banks and we will be moving towards the refinancing of the revolver," chief executive Yusuf Alireza had said.

This article was first published on March 9, 2016
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