Embattled Noble Group pins its hopes on massive share buyback scheme

It can buy back another 574.2m shares.

Struggling Noble Group is pinning its hopes on its massive share buyback scheme. According to OCBC Investment Research, the company can buy back another 574.2 million shares under its share buyback mandate.

“To date, the company has bought back a total of 119.71m shares, or around 1.78% of its outstanding share base. Based on the company announcements, Noble bought back these shares between S$0.6692 and S$0.7138, or at a weighted average of S$0.6926/share,” said the report.

Although the scheme has managed to support Noble’s share price so far, OCBC believes that the group’s Chinese investors need to take more decisive action to boost shareholder sentiments.

“Eyes will be on CIC’s next move. While the verbal confirmation is a positive boost, we suspect that the market will be looking for CIC to do more i.e. put its money where its mouth is and increase its stake in Noble. Recall that CIC had previously pared its stake from nearly 15% to ~9% by selling 300m shares at S$1.32 each on 30 Sep 2014,” said OCBC.