Noble, the Hong Kong-headquartered, Singapore-listed commodities and supply chain group, saw net profit rise to a first-quarter record on the back of strong growth in commodity volumes in the first three months of this year.
Earnings climbed 77 per cent to US$203 million in the first quarter, up from US$115 million a year earlier and a record for any first quarter since the company listed in 1997.
Robert van der Zalm, the firm's chief financial officer, said commodity volumes rose to 50.1 million tonnes in the first three months, up 17 per cent compared with 42.9 million tonnes a year earlier.
This reflected the coming on-stream of new processing and supply facilities mainly in the group's agriculture and power distribution businesses. These included crushing plants in Argentina and the Black Sea region of the Ukraine, and distribution activities in Brazil, Italy, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Total group revenue rose 76 per cent to top US$20 billion in the first quarter, against US$11.4 billion in the same period last year.
The energy business posted the biggest gains in revenue and tonnage, with the total climbing to 27.8 million tonnes in the first quarter compared with 22.7 million tonnes a year before. Revenue rose to US$14.4 billion, up from US$7.4 billion.
