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Company Information for Noble Group


Company Statement

As a global supply chain manager, Noble Group manages the flow of raw materials from source to destination with a uniquely hands-on approach. But being hands-on is about more than being in control. It's about close collaboration with our business associates. It's about being on the ground where it matters most. And it’s about the deep knowledge and understanding we have of our customers, their needs, and their markets. To us, hands-on is not a slogan; it's our way of doing business.
Who is Noble  

Noble is a market leader in managing the global supply chain of agricultural, industrial and energy products. Our “hands on” approach to business has seen us grow to become a world leader in supply chain management in just 20 years.
We specialise in the origination and delivery of strategic raw materials in the agriculture, energy, metals and minerals markets, adding value at each stage of the supply chain. The Group is also involved in technical ship management, trade finance and coal mining among others.
Our global network encompasses more than 80 offices in over 35 countries across five continents and managed by a team of nearly 3,000. From our Asian headquarters, Noble Group serves more than 4,000 customers worldwide.
 

Company Diagram

UNP, a sugar and ethanol production facility owned and operated by Noble, in Sao Paulo State, Brazil


Current Operations

Corporate 
Noble is continuously upgrading its systems and corporate controls to enhance its expanding global operations. Management is closely monitoring and executing these services which cover Equity Investments, Price Risk Management, Structured Finance and Ship Ownership.
 
Logistics 
 
Noble has become a leading independent ship-owner and operator, internationally recognised for providing high-quality, cost-effective sea transportation for all types of commodities to a variety of customers. Noble delivers comprehensive, cost-effective, safe and efficient logistic solutions to meet its customers’ transportation and raw material sourcing requirements.
 
Ship Management 
 
Established in Hong Kong in 1995, Fleet Management has grown to be one of the leading providers of third party ship management services in the world. The company has a fleet of more than 150 ships under full technical management, a crewing pool of 6,000 seafarers and has the capacity to operate all types of cargo and tanker vessels. The company operates a worldwide network of four management offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai and London as well as eight crewing offices in India, the Philippines and China. PARIS, an award winning web-based system, has been deployed to all ships allowing for close monitoring of the vessels by owners and managers. Today, we are one of the largest ship management companies in Hong Kong and among the top five in the world with total value of vessels under management exceeding US$ 3 billion.
 
Marketing 
 
Noble’s marketing of various products such as coal and ethanol are based on the historical asset light model whereby limited capital allocation projects are leveraged in order to obtain the physical product off-take. This allows the company to get paid a commission fee from the producer, which creates an annuity like income. This can also lead to incremental income associated with the traded product. Two examples include Noble’s marketing of Australian coal to China and US ethanol across the United States.


Geographical Spread

Americas   

Noble's main activities in the Americas evolve around businesses in US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Noble operates one of the largest and fastest growing grain and oilseeds businesses in South America and is one of the leading ethanol and aluminium players in the United States.

Brazil represents a strong growth area where the emphasis is on oilseeds, coffee, sugar, ethanol and fertiliser trading and marketing.  Noble owns a state of the art sugar and ethanol production facility in the state of Sao Paulo and various storage facilities across the country.

In Argentina, Noble sources and exports oilseeds, wheat and corn and owns a brand new grain storage and elevation facility on the Parana river near the city of Rosario.

In the US, Noble  continues to expand and is active in the clean fuel & ethanol, aluminium, petrochemical, coffee and sugar markets.  Noble is a leader in ethanol, with investments in a range of production facilities and holds associated marketing rights. In Canada Noble handles a variety of grain products, notably pulses, through the subsidiary Finora Inc.
 
Europe 

Noble's main European office is located in Lausanne, Switzerland which is managing grains, aluminium, cocoa, coffee, clean fuels and steel.  London activities include sugar, copper, nickel and coal and also cover vessel chartering and fleet management. Other businesses in Europe involve carbon credit trading and marketing from Germany & The Netherlands, continent-wide petrochemicals supply chain services, oilseeds distribution around the Mediterranean through operating companies in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey and steel, coal, grain and base metal sourcing from certain CIS countries through amongst others the Moscow office. 
 
Asia  
 
Noble is the largest global supply chain manager operating from Asia. The company operates from Japan to China, Thailand to India, Vietnam to Indonesia and Myanmar to Singapore.

From the world headquarters in Hong Kong, Noble manages its global franchise by coordinating the Group's finance,, risk, legal, tax, audit and human resources functions.  The office also houses the head office for its chartering and technical ship management operations.
 
From its regional office in Singapore, Noble manages the Asia grain and edible oil businesses, clean fuel, fuel oil, petrochemical products and coal and coke which represent another growing business with coal mining operations in Indonesia.
 
In both China and India, the Group owns 3 soybean crushing plants, forming the front end of supply chain services originating in South America.

Other main activities in Asia include grains and cola from Japan and grains, edible oil, iron ore, aluminium and ferro alloys from China and grains, edible oil, pulses, sugar, coffee and coal from India and coffee from Vietnam and cocoa, coffee, coal and sugar from Indonesia.

 
Oceania   

This rich natural resource territory sees Noble continuing to build its Australian coal and grain businesses from Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne which provide the main centers for their operations. Noble maintains investments in this region including the coal mining company Donaldson Ltd and a range of mining companies in the coal, manganese & chrome ore, iron ore and vanadium sectors. The investments typically provide life of mine off take/marketing rights.
 
Middle East  
 
This rapidly growing region hosts a large grain and oilseed distribution business, soybean crushing, sugar and steel operations in Egypt, warehouse facilities in Jordan, along with petrochemicals in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, an office in Dubai among others. Supporting the division's growth is the recent acquisition of Oxyde Chemicals BV. Oxyde has more than 50 years experience in the global supply of plastics raw materials, with a trading network that stretches from Asia to Western Europe.
 
Africa   

Noble owns major cocoa sourcing operations in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria and has recently established a grain handling entity in Johannesburg South Africa where it also has established an office and a JV with a Black Empowerment Group to invest in coal and grain assets. Noble also supplies coffee from the region.


Board of Directors and Key Management

Executive Directors
Richard S Elman Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Harry S Banga Vice Chairman
Non-Executive Directors
David Eldon
Michel Harouche
Ambassador Burton Levin
Robert Tze Leung Chan
Edward Walter Rubin
Alan Howard Smith
Iain Bruce
Milton Au
Dr. Kenneth Stuart Courtis
Executives
Ricardo Leiman
Stephen J Marzo
Wildrik de Blank
David J Beringer
Louis Tang.
Nick Brewer.
Jeffrey M Alam
Bharat Sundavadra
Tim Eyre
Lelia Konyn

Company Address

Noble Group Limited
18th Floor
MassMutual Tower
38 Gloucester Road
Hong Kong, China

Telephone:+852 2861 3511
Facsimile:+852 2527 0282
Email:info[at]thisisnoble.com
Website:http://www.thisisnoble.com

Additional Address/Key Contact

SINGAPORE
460 Alexandra Road
#26-06 PSA Building
Singapore 119963
Tel +65 6305 4888
Fax +65 6305 4889
LAUSANNE
Avenue des Mousquines 4
CH-1005 Lausanne
Switzerland
Tel +41 21/331 0890
Fax +41 21/331 0891
STAMFORD
Stamford Harbor Park
333 Ludlow Street, Suite 1230
Stamford, CT 06902
U.S.A.
Tel +1 203/324 8555
Fax +1 203/324 8565
Rollover Fax +1 203/324 8567

Annual General Meeting

April

Year End

December

Related News

20/09/07 - Richard Elman Of Noble Group Opines On The Outlook For Commodities

Most Recent Statement

12/09/07 - Noble Group Repeats on Forbes Fab 50
23/08/07 - Noble Group Hires Jeremy Amias as Chief Operating Officer - Finance
20/08/07 - Noble Group Hires Stephen Brown as Director – Investor Relations
13/08/07 - Noble Group Announces Record Semi-Annual Revenues...
08/08/07 - Noble Group to Report 2007 Second Quarter Results on 14th August

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