Noble Group senior management fought back today at detractors as part of its ‘investor day’ in Singapore. The commodities giant has seen its share price nosedive 60% over the past six months on the back of scathing reports on its accounting practices led by a research group called Iceberg Research.
Noble’s chairman and founder, Richard Elman (pictured), used the investor day to attack his critics.
“I have listened to some pretty wild stories about Noble over the last 25 years,” Elman was quoted by the Financial Times as saying. “[This] has gone a little bit too far.”
When contacted by Splash in mid-June, Elman was similarly dismissive of Iceberg Research. “Some ex-employee started the nonsense,” Elman told this site two months ago.
The group’s chief executive, Yusuf Alireza, said that Iceberg Research’s “sole intention was to damage the company … and to profit, either directly or indirectly.” He added that he was looking forward to taking the people behind the research outfit to court.
A source at Iceberg Research dismissed Alireza’s and Elman’s comments, telling Splash: “This has never been an Iceberg matter. For example, very reputable newspapers have brought facts and analyses that go in the same direction.”
