Sunday, March 22, 2015

THIRD REPORT ON NOBLE GROUP, A REPEAT OF ENRON: GOVERNANCE, DEBT AND LIQUIDITY HEADROOM

Report 3-Governance&Debt.pdf

...The guaranteed debt and the debt on Noble’s books have the same level of seniority. Any group could, under the same model as Noble, create an associate, raise debt at associate level against a corporate guarantee, transfer the cash to the holding, and present the picture of a cash rich/low debt company.

..."...we strongly suspect that in practice Noble repurchases its inventories every time, and the optionality only exists on paper. This would also inflate revenue because the inventory is sold and re-purchased by the same company."