>>6802846 (lb)
Kinda of a list about private islands here: https://addicted2success.com/news/11-super-rich-millionaires-who-own-a-private-island/
Another link to a few more. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2016/03/31/billionaire-private-islands-larry-ellison-richard-branson/#10b95e585219
Found dis, marketfags may see more, I see big company cooking books.
Iceberg resurfaces with Trafigura as its new Noble
June 20th, 2019 Sam Chambers Sam Chambers Dry Cargo, Europe, Offshore 0 comments
The team that took down Hong Kong’s Noble Group has set its sights on another huge commodities trader. Iceberg Research, whose incendiary reports on Noble’s accounting practices from 2015 onwards sparked the dramatic decline of what was Asia’s largest commodities trader, now claims mighty Trafigura, one of the world’s top energy and metal traders with revenues in excess of $180bn last year, has also been cooking its books.
The report entitled ‘Trafigura ignores market prices to fabricate profit and hides sizeable losses on its balance sheet’ issued on Wednesday targets Trafigura’s 49.5% stake in Porto Sudeste, an iron ore port in southeast Brazil, which Iceberg states is in trouble with dissatisfied customers. The port’s carrying value is a modest $42m on Trafigura’s balance sheet as of September 2018 according to Iceberg. Trafigura also holds debt securities of Porto Sudeste with a much more substantial carrying value of $490m, Iceberg states.
“Trafigura values at $490m the junior debt securities of a company with significant uncertainty as a going concern. In our experience, companies that ignore market prices to value listed securities and prefer their own cash flow model inevitably have to face reality,” Iceberg’s new report states, coming months after it had brought the Noble Group to its knees.
“Trafigura is not listed so it has no incentive to boost its share price, but it has a massive $33b debt, very large operating cash outflow, and covenants that would probably be affected by the impairment of these assets,” Iceberg stated, adding that it will shortly cover other issues on Trafigura’s financial statements.
In Iceberg’s opening paragraph, the analysts state: “We found that Trafigura ignores economic reality to aggressively overvalue hundreds of millions in debt securities issued by an associate. In our opinion, the group has fabricated profit via an accounting loophole.”
Contacted for response by Splash, Trafigura dismissed the questionable accounting accusations.
In an emailed statement, Trafigura claimed: “The securities represent 5 percent of Trafigura’s non-current assets as of 30 September 2018. Detailed and specific disclosures on Porto Sudeste are provided in Trafigura’s audited financial statements. Trafigura has always followed a conservative approach to the valuation of its assets. This principle is part of its risk management framework, supported by strong governance anchored in Trafigura’s partnership model.”
The driving force behind Iceberg was finally revealed in August last year. Arnaud Vagner, a Frenchman, formerly a senior credit analyst at Noble, admitted he was the main man behind the demise of Noble, whose net worth slumped from $10bn to less than $115m after Iceberg started digging into its accounts.
Full article here:
https://splash247.com/iceberg-resurfaces-with-trafigura-as-its-new-noble/
Appreciated anon, I thunk there was more to it. Must say I could not find this Porto Sudeste so author may have been referring to Porto Alegre. Spotted several bulk carriers and iron ore loaded on ships with their own cranes would be how I'd want to go. Dedicated ore carriers can be labor intensive unloading and real inefficient for long voyages.
I'd rather have rhodium, even palladium is higher than gold right now at $1477 USD/oz
I remember all the DIW tankers floating around and wondered if the crws were getting easy money or bored out of their skulls.