Noble Group reports $4.9 billion annual loss, focus on debt restructuring

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Commodities trader Noble Group Ltd plunged to an annual loss of $4.9 billion versus a profit of $8.7 million a year ago, mainly due to non-cash losses on its derivatives contracts, the company said.

In its results reported on Wednesday, Noble said again that its $3.4 billion debt-for-equity swap would help create a sustainable capital structure for the company. Last week, the Singapore-listed firm had flagged a loss of $4.78 billion to $4.98 billion for 2017.

The debt restructuring is crucial for the survival of the company, which has sold billions of dollars of assets, taken hefty writedowns and cut hundreds of jobs over the past three years to slash debt.

(Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Tom Hogue)