Noble insists it is not against buying assets: analyst

But it would remain ''asset light''.

According to Nomura, they recently met with Noble's management to get an update on strategy. Here are takeaways from the said meeting:

Noble reiterated that its competence is in being a physical merchant – as a strong and well diversified supply chain player and making money on risk management along the supply chain.

Noble remains bullish on China and believes that its appetite for food would make China move from self-sustainability to a combination of selfsufficiency, origination access and reserves.

The motive for doing any deal in Agri would be to de-risk and accelerate execution of its strategy.

Noble indicated that it is not against buying assets, but it would want to remain asset light and any asset purchases would be means to justify supply chain access.

The company has been putting a lot of focus on operational efficiency (controlling cost/MT). YTD has seen significant increase in volatility in various commodities, which is good for Noble.

Noble believes that even after any meaningful recovery in Agri, its standalone RoE would be lower than that of other segments.