Noble Group announced the completion of sale of its oil business to Vitol. Noble Group’s Global Oil Liquids business was primarily conducted through NAC. However, the company said that the net proceeds were lower than expected.
The estimated net proceeds from the sale were $400 million.
Namely, Vitol paid a total of $272 million with $122 million placed in escrow and $6 million payable by Noble Group towards transaction costs. The amounts to be paid out from escrow will be subject to the terms and conditions of the stock purchase agreement.
In addition, the $400 million of net proceeds from the sale of NAC excludes the remaining $20 million escrow amount in respect of the Noble Americas Gas & Power Corp sale as announced on 8 January 2018.
The US$400 million of estimated net proceeds from the sale of NAC are lower than the expected $575 million, as were determined at 1 October 2017
included in the circular to shareholders dated 29 November 2017.
The decrease in estimated net proceeds is mainly cause because of operating losses of NAC from 1 October 2017 to the closing date. These operating losses were driven by reduced trading operations, as the business was prepared for sale, which prevented NAC from covering it fixed expenses, Noble Group explained.
