Noble gained $400m from 5-year bond issue

It'll mainly be for refinancing and general corporate goals.

Here's what TradeWinds wrote in an article on Noble:

Noble Group, the commodities house and major charterer, has raised $400m from a five-year bond issue.

The three year unsecured US dollar bonds will carry a fixed coupon of 3.625% and is due to mature on 20 March 2018.

Noble Group, which is listed in Singapore, said the funds would be for refinancing and general corporate purposes.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, ING Bank, JP Morgan Securities and Societe Generale were lead managers for the bond issue.

The bonds have been issued under Noble group’s $3bn medium-term note (MTN) program first unveiled in August 2011.

“The deal was met with overwhelming demand with the book more than 6 times oversubscribed by over 200 accounts from Asia and Europe,” Noble said.

“This bond marks our first return to the US Dollar market since 2010. We are delighted with the outstanding investor response,” said Wildrik de Blank, Group Treasurer.

“We have been able to term out our debt maturity profile, lock in attractive funding rates and deepen our relationship with our investor base.”

Closing and settlement of the bonds is expected to take place on or about 20 March 2013, the company said.

Earlier this month Noble saw its credit ratings by Moody’s and S&P affirmed at Baa3 and BBB-, respectively, and the outlooks changed to stable.

The Hong Kong-based company only owns a few ships, but is said to charter around 250 to 300 ships per year from the market.

Noble owns a fleet of eleven bulkers, either capesizes or post-panamaxes, according to figures from shipbroker Clarksons.

It also has a single post-panamax bulker, the 92,500-dwt Ocean Topaz, on order at Chinese shipbuilder Cosco Dalian for delivery this year.

Noble also has interests in grain crushing facilities, coal and iron ore mines, fuel terminals and storage facilities, sugar, ethanol plants and ports. 

View the full story here.