Noble Group shares rise 4.4 percent on divestment comments

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Noble Group shares rose as much as 4.4 percent on Tuesday after its chief executive said Asia's biggest commodities trader was open to selling core businesses, as tries to rebuild confidence following a damaging accounting dispute.

Noble is evaluating a number of options such as shutting down certain businesses and working with banks and strategic investors, Yusuf Alireza said at the Singapore-listed company's investor information day on Monday.

Noble, already under pressure in a weak commodities market, hit the spotlight in February when blogger Iceberg Research alleged the company was inflating its assets by billions of dollars by not fairly representing the value of its commodity contracts. The company has rejected the claims.

 

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Stephen Coates)