Iceberg to unleash fourth report on Noble almost a year after first attack

Noble's woes are not yet over after all.

A little under a year ago, no one had anticipated that a hard-hitting report from an anonymous short-seller will be enough to bring Asia’s largest commodity trader to its knees.

Now, Noble Group’s tussle with Iceberg Research is set to enter another chapter after the short-seller revealed that it is preparing a fourth report against its beleaguered target.

Iceberg had previously stated that it will only issue three reports against Noble. Two reports were released in February and the third in March. The reports accused Noble of misleading investors by artificially inflating the values of its assets.

“We are preparing a fourth report on Noble. Before we publish it, we wanted to give the current status of our main arguments on Noble’s accounting, as presented in the three previous reports. Almost all our arguments are already facts recognised by the market, but also recognised by Noble as well,” Iceberg Research said on Wednesday.

Noble Group’s share price has plunged 77% since Iceberg’s first report, while its bonds are trading at distressed levels after being cut to junk status by two ratings agencies.

Iceberg reiterated that it stood by its arguments, including claims that are not yet validated such as Noble’s artificially low debt level and the group’s alleged inflated fair values.

“We have absolutely no doubt that the most important remaining argument (the commodity contract fair values) will soon be recognized as fact as well,” Iceberg said.