By Anshuman Daga
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Shares in Noble Group Ltd lost a fifth of their value on Thursday after it unexpectedly warned of a quarterly loss, stoking worries that the commodity trader was failing to recover from a crisis-wracked two years despite drastic restructuring.
Flagging a first-quarter net loss of about $130 million, the Singapore-listed company cited a challenging operating environment and said it was caught out by movements in coal prices.
"The loss-warning is a surprise... We need to see if this is a result of non-cash impairments or if it involves real cash outflows," said a Hong Kong-based fund manager who was not authorised to speak to the media and declined to be identified.
The warning deals a blow to its efforts to rebuild investor confidence after harsh setbacks that have included a questioning of its accounts by Iceberg Research and a commodities downturn that triggered a share price collapse, credit rating downgrades as well as a series of writedowns and asset sales.
Noble, which has stood by its accounts, appointed two new co-CEOs last year after its chief executive quit. But the company's shares are still down around 90 percent from mid-February 2015 when Iceberg first issued its report.
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The net loss is its weakest result in more than two years excluding the October-December quarter in 2015 when it took a writedown of over a billion dollars.
At its shareholder meeting in Singapore last month, some shareholders cast doubt on Noble's prospects, but Chairman Richard Elman repeatedly said the company had taken tough decisions and would begin to show a recovery later this year.
It will hold an earnings call at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT)
Noble's shares fell as much as 22 percent to S$1.00, their lowest in 14 years and giving the trader a market value of just $1 billion.
Its $750 mln bond carrying a 8.75 percent coupon and maturing in 2022 has fallen 10 points since the warning late on Tuesday. Financial markets were closed on Wednesday for a public holiday.
The commodity trader is in talks with China's state-owned Sinochem for an equity investment, Reuters reported in February. Noble subsequently said it was holding talks on a possible strategic investment in the firm, but did not say who the potential buyer was.
"After the stock price plunge, the management may not find it attractive to sell shares to a new shareholder...So injecting cash via equity is less likely," the fund manager said.
The company has also seen several traders leave in recent weeks, sources familiar with the moves have said.
Noble, whose top shareholders include Elman and sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, is now mainly focused on oil liquids and energy coal businesses.
(Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in SINGAPORE and Umesh Desai in HONG KONG; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)