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 Noble was thrust into the spotlight a year ago when Iceberg Research
published the first of three detailed reports on the company,
alleging it inflated its assets by billions of dollars by
inaccurately representing the value of its contracts.
Elman, 75, said he sees no further disruptions to the business from
those claims, which Noble rejects. A board-appointed consultant,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, found Noble had complied with international
rules.
"Last year, we had to separate our business from rumor and gossip.
We got attacked in a very low regulated environment," Elman said in
his first media interview in three years. "We feel it's behind us.
There is no reason for us to have any further disruption in that
sense."
Elman is preparing Noble, a Hong Kong-based group he set up with
$100,000 in 1986, for a new era as commodity prices are mired in
their deepest slump in recent years.
"We need to go back to being modest and cautious and economical," he
told Reuters at his 18th floor office overlooking Hong Kong's
Victoria Harbour.
Elman, Noble's largest shareholder with more than a 22 percent
stake, said he believed the commodities cycle was "bottoming".
"I wouldn't rule out oil going down to $20-$25 a barrel, but I think
it's not going to go down to $10," he said, adding oil prices were
unlikely to stay at depressed levels for long.
NEW BLOOD
Plans to bring in new investors to Singapore-listed Noble were
taking time, Elman said.
"Most sectors are pretty bashed up at the moment, so new money is
going to be very selective. People want to investigate the company
and they want to understand the people, they want to learn about the
business and ... it does take time."
The day-to-day running of Noble has been handed over to CEO Yusuf
Alireza, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Elman said: "I think
he's faring well. He works extremely hard, the guy hardly ever
sleeps."
Elman, who saw Noble grow to be one of the world's biggest commodity
suppliers - from coal and iron ore to coffee - and watched revenue
jump by nearly 10 times to $86 billion over the past decade, said
the business model of commodity merchants was rapidly changing.
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"Do I think merchants have a future?, yes absolutely," he said.
The commodity market slump and the accounting issues have wiped out
about three-quarters of Noble's market value over the past year, to
just $1.4 billion, and prompted Standard & Poor's and Moody's to cut
its credit rating to junk. Noble is not alone in being punished by
the stock market; shares in bigger rival Glencore have dropped by
more than two thirds in the past year.
Elman, an art collector with an eye for pottery and artifacts - more
than three dozen paintings from his personal collection hang on the
walls of Noble's headquarters, including a 1995 Yang Din abstract
behind his desk - acknowledges it has been his most challenging
year.
"Sometimes probably my mind was a little foggy on what to do and how
to do it, but I never didn't believe we wouldn't succeed in the
end," he said.
Elman said he still has the support of Noble investors, who include
the powerful China Investment Corp.
Noble, which has a total of $2.5 billion worth of loans due this
year according to Thomson Reuters LPC data, will hold an
extraordinary shareholders' meeting in Singapore next week.
"We have had a lot of constructive dialogue with many of our
shareholders. And if this had been a Noble issue and not a sectoral
issue, it's one thing. But it wasn't. Everybody has been affected by
it," he said, referring to the market downturn.
(Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Denny Thomas; Editing by Ian
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