S&P: Noble on negative watch

Standard & Poor’s placed its BBB- long-term corporate credit rating on Noble Group Ltd. and the BBB- issue rating on the company’s senior unsecured notes on CreditWatch with negative implications.

The agency also placed its cnBBB+ Greater China scale ratings on Noble and its notes on CreditWatch with negative implications.

The CreditWatch action reflects S&P’s view that Noble's liquidity and financial leverage have weakened and breached levels that the agency considers appropriate for the current rating.

Noble's liquidity deteriorated in the third quarter of 2015 following a 27% decline in the company’s net available readily marketable inventory to $1.48 billion as of September 2015 from $2.0 billion in June 2015. The deterioration was largely related to the fall in commodities prices, S&P said.

Noble's financial leverage is also weak for the rating, S&P said. The company’s ratio of funds from operations to debt is 19.8% as of September 2015 on a rolling 12-month basis. This is a similar level to that in June 2015, but down from 24% in March 2015.

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