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Noble Group’s Elman to retire

Concluding another tricky week for Hong Kong commodities trader Noble Group, its founder and chairman, Richard Elman has announced his intention to retire within the next 12 months. David Eldon, former chairman of HSBC and a director at Noble and well known fixer in Hong Kong, has been tasked with finding a successor.

Noble also announced today a rights issue to raise about $500m with support from China’s sovereign wealth fund.

On Monday, Noble’s ceo Yusuf Alireza quit, and the company set about selling Noble Americas Energy Solutions.

Noble has been hit hard by the slump in commodity prices and allegations of accounting fraud which has seen its share price in Singapore take a hammering and repeated calls for Elman to step down.

Elman, who famously was a scrap metal barrow boy in the East End of London, built Noble Group from three people and $100,000 of capital to a company that now employs 15,000 people and has revenues of approximately $100bn.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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