Noble Group, Asia's largest commodities trader, said on Monday it was purchasing two more soya crushing facilities in China for about US $18 million. The company, headquartered in Hong Kong, said in a statement it had agreed to buy a plant in Changing from Great Wall Investments Pte Ltd in Singapore.
It was acquiring another plant in Longbow in the northern province of Shandong from Sino Agree-Trade Pte Ltd, which is also based in Singapore, Noble said. Shares in Noble had risen 4.7 percent on Monday, outpacing a 0.6 percent gain in the benchmark index. Noble said the deals would be financed from its internal cash resources and bank borrowings.
The book value of the assets to be acquired by Noble was approximately $34 million as of October 13. The acquisition followed Noble's investment in April in another soya crushing plant in Qinzhou in China's southern province of Guangxi. No Noble official was immediately available to provide the capacity of the crushing facilities.