Troubled commodity trader Noble Group on Thursday said it had obtained a waiver from creditors to extend covenants on a loan facility to May next year, giving it more time in its debt restructuring negotiations.
FILE PHOTO: The reception of Noble Group is seen at its headquarters in Hong Kong March 23, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
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HONG KONG/SINGAPORE: Troubled commodity trader Noble Group on Thursday said it had received an extension on a loan until May next year, giving it crucial time for negotiations over debt restructuring.
But the firm, based in Hong Kong and listed in Singapore, said the outcome of the discussions with creditors remained uncertain.
The loan had already been extended twice until mid-December, as Noble battles to recover from years of crisis.
“The company has obtained an extension on a waiver in relation to the financial covenants in its committed unsecured revolving credit facility to 18 May, 2018,” Noble said in a written statement on Thursday.
The company, which has bank debt of about US$1.2 billion and bonds aggregating about US$2.3 billion, did not indicate the size of the credit being extended.
“Noble … continues to be in discussions with its creditors,” it said. “No assurance can be given as to the outcome of these discussions.”
Noble’s chairman Paul Brough, a restructuring specialist who was appointed this year, said last Friday it was the company’s priority to keep out of insolvency.
Noble was plunged into crisis in 2015 when Iceberg Research started questioning its accounts, resulting in sharp share price falls, credit downgrades and its bonds trading at distressed levels. Noble has refuted such criticism.
Once Asia’s biggest commodity merchant with ambitions to rival dominant European trading houses like Glencore and Vitol, Noble’s stock price has crashed from a peak of SUS$17 (US$12.65) in 2011 to 25 cents. That gives it a market capitalization of just SUS$318 million, compared with over US$70 billion for Glencore.
Noble was also hit by a commodities downturn that started in late 2014.
Its financial woes resulted in the company’s retreat from most financial commodity markets, including oil, natural gas and even coal, Noble’s traditional strongpoint.
The downsizing has also played a part in Noble’s failure to profit from resurgent commodity prices this year.
Despite soaring oil, natural gas and coal markets, the company lost around US$3 billion in the first nine months of this year.
The turmoil at the company has also resulted in several high level departures, including chief executive officer (CEO) Yusuf Alireza in 2016, and co-CEO Jeffrey Frase in November.
(Reporting by Kane Wu in HONG KONG and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Joseph Radford)
SINGAPORE: A new Vehicular Emissions Label will have to be affixed on showroom cars displayed for sale with effect from Jan 1 next year, announced the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and National Environment Agency (NEA) on Thursday (Dec 21).
Based on the new Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES), the label will replace the current fuel economy label for cars, said the authorities in a joint press release.
The label will display the emissions bands of five pollutants – carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide.
It will also display the resultant rebate or surcharge and the fuel economy of the car.
This label will help potential vehicle buyers make informed decisions, said NEA and LTA.
VEHICULAR EMISSIONS SCHEME
The VES, which replaces the current Carbon Emissions-Based Vehicle Scheme will take effect from Jan 1 next year.
The scheme for all new cars, taxis and newly imported used cars calculates the rebate or surcharge for the vehicle based on the worst-performing pollutant.
Chart showing VES banding rebates and surcharges from Jan 1 Jun 30 next year. (Photo: LTA, NEA)
It is to encourage buyers to choose models that have lower emissions across all five pollutants, said the authorities.
According to the statement, all vehicles registered from Jan 1 to Jun 30 next year will be exempted from the PM criteria under the VES. This will give motor dealers more time to submit PM emissions information for assessment under the VES.
Vehicles registered from Jul 1 next year will be assessed on all five pollutants.
Consumers can check the fuel cost calculator on the ONE.MOTORING website to view and compare the VES bands and indicative fuel efficiency of various car models.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding is one of the most anticipated events of next year. While many of the details like the venue and date have already been disclosed, we’re dying to know who will make Meghan’s wedding dress. Now we have a hint on a possible design.
Israel-based bridal designer Inbal Dror confirmed to People that the Kensington Palace requested sketches for the wedding. Meanwhile, TMZ obtained three of the sketches, which show long-sleeved dresses reminiscent of other royal brides like Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and Princess Diana.
Inbal often designs non-traditional wedding gowns with sexy silhouettes, sheer fabric, and plunging necklines. As Vogue described, “Dror is not known for dressing blushingly demure brides.”
So these potential wedding gowns for Meghan are different from Inbal’s past creations. The designer also has a star-studded clientele, which includes Beyonce and Naomi Watts.
In the past, Meghan told Glamour that she wanted a wedding gown that is “classic and simple is the name of the game, perhaps with a modern twist” and “whimsical or subtly romantic.” So expect that style on her May 19th nuptials.
Inbal Dror is just one of the many designers that they have to choose from for the big day. But which design do you think would suit Meghan best?
Britain’s Prince Harry to marry Meghan Markle next year
K-pop stars delayed, downscaled and even cancelled promotional activities in the wake of the unexpected death of SHINee lead singer Jonghyun.
EXO, signed under the same label as SHINee, announced Tuesday it would postpone the release of its winter album “Universe” to Dec. 26 from the originally slated Thursday.
Twice also delayed the release of the music video for “Merry & Happy” from Thursday to Friday, it announced via Twitter on Tuesday. Kim’s burial service is to be held Thursday.
Seventeen cancelled Monday’s episode of “Going Seventeen,” its weekly show released online, promptly after the tragic news, though it was less than an hour before the time slot for the video.
BTOB also cancelled the press conference for its “2017 BTOB Time Our Concert,” which was set for Saturday, the group announced Wednesday.
Jonghyun was found in a state of cardiac arrest at a rented studio apartment in southern Seoul on Monday. He was rushed to a hospital but was pronounced dead.
A private memorial for the singer has been set up at Asan Medical Center in eastern Seoul.
Khloe Kardashian confirmed her pregnancy on social media after months of speculation.
The 33-year-old posted a black-and-white photo of boyfriend and NBA player Tristan Thompson holding her bare belly.
She said, “My greatest dream realised! We are having a baby!”
“I had been waiting and wondering but God had a plan all along.”
She expressed her gratitude to her 26-year-old beau, stating, “Tristan, thank you for loving me the way that you do! Thank you for treating me like a Queen!”
The private funeral started around 8 a.m. It was attended by Jonghyun’s family, as well as officials and artists of S.M. Entertainment, including Girls’ Generation and EXO.
Jonghyun was found unconscious at a rented studio apartment in Seoul on Monday. He was pronounced dead shortly after being sent to a hospital. Investigators ruled it a suicide.
A black and white memorial for SHINee’s Jonghyun by Singaporean fans at Hong Lim Park
SINGAPORE: No one bats an eyelid when doses of Singlish terms such as “lah” and “ah”, colloquial phrases, and even vulgarities creep in during lessons in this school.
This is the way some classes are conducted at the three Institute of Education (ITE) colleges here, and as the lecturers would tell you, it’s all about catering to their audience – students with short-attention spans who listen and engage better in an informal setting.
Mr Moses Tay, a life skills lecturer at ITE College-Central, keeps his presentations short – up to 10 minutes at any one time.
“Some of them are very nervous because their mother tongue is not English,” he explained. “If I have to speak, I have to drive home my point quickly. We also organise activities and games (during lessons) so that the fun element is there.”
Mr Moses Tay giving out Oreo cookies as incentive in class.
Pastry and baking lecturer Jeremy Lim from the School of Hospitality admitted using vulgarities when scolding his students, to get them used to the rough and tumble culture of working in a kitchen after graduation.
“Right from the beginning, we told them that in this line, there will be words that were not used on them before, words from (the chefs) that they may not be able to accept,” he said. “This is the culture shock that they will have, and we have to prepare them.”
Lecturers Mr Tay and Mr Lim often have to think outside the box when engaging these ITE students, whom the former described as “not your typical book smart” types.
More than educators, these lecturers also wear the hats of entertainers, counsellors and career guidance officers – going beyond their duty to motivate and engage their young wards.
Mr Jeremy Lim prepares his students for the real working world.
The programme On The Red Dot gained unprecedented access to the ITE colleges, capturing not just stories of the students, but also an insight into the teachers and their commitment to their students. (Watch the 4-part series here. The final episode airs Dec 22.)
A SPECIAL BREED OF TEACHERS
After secondary school, students who fail to secure a place at junior colleges or polytechnics can enrol at ITE, which equips these academically less inclined youth with vocational skills.
Mr Tay describes his students as kinaesthetic learners who learn better through visual or auditory study techniques such as watching slides and videos, and doing physical activities rather than passively listening to a lecture.
“They don’t learn as well when you speak to them, so we try to avoid giving too long a lecture because they see it as a verbal diarrhoea,” he said.
It is not an easy task, he admitted. “I think you really need to be a special breed to teach in ITE.
Students here are very different. I see it as my purpose to uplift them, motivate them, and it’s something that I believe I was made to do.
Many of these teenagers suffer from confidence and self-esteem issues because of their family background and the social stigma associated with being in ITE.
“Often the message of hope must be communicated to them, that it’s not all gloom and doom to be studying here,” said Mr Tay. “In fact, if they can make good decisions, there are many success stories that they can glean from and look up to.”
Some 50 per cent of ITE students are on financial aid, and many take on part-time jobs in the F&B or retail sectors to pay their fees or to sustain themselves and their family.
Because of their work commitments, some students are habitually late, doze off in class or are persistently absent, said mechatronics engineering lecturer Nelson Ng, who has been teaching at ITE for eight years..
EMPATHY AND NAGGING, WHEN THEY PLAY HOOKY
“Often we need to have a high level of empathy,” he noted. “Perhaps they didn’t sleep properly the night before because of what happened at home, or maybe they needed to work late.
Staying awake and focused in class is sometimes tough.
“We do remind them of the importance of attendance and the fact that they shouldn’t allow their circumstances to get them into greater difficulty (in school).”
There are 28,000 students spread out across the three ITE colleges and they must achieve a minimum attendance rate of 80 per cent or they will be barred from taking their exams.
Which is why Mr Tay and other lecturers regularly hound them, texting and calling them up to remind them to attend classes. Punishing these students for playing hooky, said Mr Tay, may not be effective.
“To a large extent, some of these students had been punished repeatedly by their primary school or secondary school teachers. So, when they come here, they are already hardened,” he said.
We need to have empathy for them, and encouragement really works.
Final-year Mechatronics Engineering student Ms Nurul Ain, for example, has a complicated home life – her parents separated when she was five and she now lives with her older brother at their grandparent’s HDB flat.
To support herself, the 19-year-old has been working night shifts at an F&B outlet, and was barred from taking the exams in three out of four subjects in her final term due to poor attendance.
Mr Nelson Ng pushes Ain to attend classes more regularly.
If she is unable to take her final exams, she will not graduate with her peers – but thankfully, she has Mr Tay and her form teacher Mr Ng, to push her.
“I’m late every day because I always sleep late,” she said. “Sometimes it makes me feel bad because he (Mr Ng) has to go after me every now and then.”
SACRIFICING HIS WEEKENDS TO HELP
Mr Ng frequently calls his students on their handphones to check if they’re attending classes, or their friends to enquire about their whereabouts – even making his way to the basketball court to make sure they are at physical education classes.
“The night before lessons, I WhatsApp my students to ensure that they sleep early,” he said. “I follow up with the (absent) students after lessons to check what actually happened, and call their parents.”
He is so dedicated that he even sacrificed some of his weekends to hold remedial lessons for students who had skipped lessons during the weekdays because of work commitments, so that they would not fall behind.
Ask about this, though, and he shrugs: “In every job there will be some sacrifices. If my passion is this, I don’t think it’s a sacrifice.”
Mr Ng often texts and calls his students or their friends, to check up on their whereabouts.
Mr Ng is even on a first-name basis with some parents like Ms Nurul’s mother, Madam Salmiah Samsudin, 44. He WhatsApps her regularly about her daughter as the two don’t live together. He calls her if she misses lessons.
“She is doing great actually, because I’ve been interacting with her form teacher,” Mdm Salmiah said.
He updates me about her studies every day without her knowing, I mean, not every teacher will do that for their students.
Ms Nurul certainly appreciates Mr Ng’s efforts and called him “a great motivator”.
“He supports his students although we annoy him. He has never given up (on us), since the first day I met him,” said the student who has since submitted an appeal to take her final examinations.
Mr Ng on the basketball court, checking that his students are at PE class.
GIVING THEM ROLE MODELS
Many of the ITE students have been through repeated cycles of failure and may be unable to achieve success on their own steam, said Mr Tay – which was why he piloted the peer coaching programme for their foosball CCA this year.
The more experienced higher Nitec students take on the roles of coaches to the junior Nitec students, called the “coachies”. Having their seniors – some who have played competitive foosball before – as role models to draw inspiration from is useful.
“Many of them come from less advantaged households and often do not have adults they can look up to, to learn from and to emulate in terms of the way they conduct themselves and how they approach life’s challenges and obstacles,” said Mr Tay.
He hopes the younger students pick up life and time management skills from their seniors, and that the latter gain leadership, interpersonal and communication skills too.
Mr Tay also teaches the Life Skills module, which develops communication, personal, interpersonal and problem-solving skills, preparing his students for their career.
He conducts mock job interviews, highlighting the way they answer questions, criticising their portfolio and even commenting on their attire, such as when their skirts are too short. “We want to train their thinking so that they can crystallise why they want to apply for certain jobs and how they can deal with interview answers,” he said.
BEING CONFIDANTS AND COUNSELLORS
And there are lecturers like Mr Rosli Omar, section head of the Pastry & Baking course at ITE College West, who frequently has to wear the hat of a counsellor, on top of managing lecturers, overseeing the curriculum, timetable and tackling student discipline issues.
“To be a teacher, you need to care about your students, their personal well-being and their growth,” said Mr Rosli, who listens to their problems and often counsels them when they need help.
One of them is Sasha Rie, a year-one Pastry & Baking student and the class clown. The 17-year-old, who was recently diagnosed with anxiety and depressive disorder, was seeing a psychiatrist.
“If you look at Sasha, she portrays a happy face – she always laughs and she always jokes around,” said Mr Rosli. “But deep inside she has a lot of worries and her friends don’t know it.”
She often confides in Mr Rosli about her struggles with her studies and her depression.
In one instance, he advised the teenager to be positive and to seek help if she needed it, saying: “We don’t want people to see the real us, and you always keep a mask on. It’s a double-aged sword and people make assumptions. Sometimes, it’s best to be truthful.”
His advice prompted her to disclose her problems to her friends, who promised to stand by her. “It’s definitely something off my chest,” she told On The Red Dot.
PROUD OF WHO THEY ARE
At a dessert buffet event organised for parents, Mr Rosli played the intermediary between Ms Rie and her mother Mdm Mizue Hara, who was not fully aware of the extent of her daughter’s depression.
Mr Rosli meets with Sasha and her mum.
“Sometimes she likes to dwell on certain issues over and over again. I’m just sharing that sometimes she needs the support,” he told Mdm Hara.
Ms Rie is always grateful for the opportunity to seek his help.
He’s always really, really busy, so I don’t really get a chance to talk to him. But whenever I (do), you know, it’s always a blessing.
Lecturers like Mr Rosli are a driving force behind their students, who typically face very different problems compared to those studying in polytechnics and junior colleges.
Mr Tay recounted how one of his students – who was so ashamed of his ITE uniform that he would only wear it in school – would change into his home clothes just before leaving the campus for the day.
“Some of the students do not like to be in this position where they have to attend school here,” he said. “But I think that after they study here, they understand, ‘hey, ITE is not something I ought to be ashamed of’.
“And bit by bit, they grow in their self-esteem, their confidence, and they become proud of who they are and where they are studying.”
SEOUL – For decades, K-pop stars have been the envy of teenagers here due to the seemingly glamorous and lucrative lifestyle show business has to offer.
But a note written by the main vocalist of SHINee, who took his life Monday, showed the depth of their struggles and lives in the public eye, shedding a critical spotlight on the multibillion-won industry where some artistes are crushed under depression.
In his letter, Jonghyun (pic) wrote, “I’m broken from the inside. The depression that has slowly eaten away at me has finally consumed me, and I couldn’t beat it.”
Confidence and smiles abound onstage, but many K-pop acts, including Jonghyun, have already made public the relentless stress and depression they suffer.
Choa of girl band AOA left her group, citing long-term depression and insomnia, and Hani of another girl group EXID said on TV that she was planning a different life as a mental health counsellor in the future with the hope of helping idol trainees who often go through severe stress.
RM of boy group BTS also previously said: “I used to ponder upon a malicious comment written by a netizen in just five seconds with a fleeting thought of ‘I just don’t like this guy’ for the next five hours and five days.”
Experts point out that celebrities, who feed on the public’s attention, can be highly vulnerable to depression for several reasons.
Kim Byung Soo, a psychiatrist at Asan Medical Centre who has several celebrity patients, cited unstable emotional states and separation of identity as major causes for their frequent depression.
“Psychological studies have already shown that celebrities, who engage in creative and artistic activities, have a higher possibility of developing depression than ordinary people. People in such professions are more susceptible to mood swings and emotional consumption than others, elements that are linked to depression,” he said.
Dr Kim also said public figures go through a separation of their persona, which is divided into the “social” and “real” identities. As the gap widens, spurred by the unbalanced growth of their “social” ego that is fed with fame, celebs may lose their real selves and depend heavily on their masked appearance. And it could later tear them apart, said Dr Kim.
Several K-pop acts, including Jonghyun, T-ara’s Jiyeon and Minah of Girls’ Day have previously confessed to the feeling of having lost their identities in an effort to cater to the public.
Another step to depression could be isolation, said Dr Kim, referring to it as “severing of all ties from the past self”.
“Becoming a celebrity could be like crossing a river you can never return from. Some people may think that celebrities will always be surrounded by crowds, but their personal relationships are actually very limited and narrow. It’s really hard for them to get involved in serious relationships with others, because they tend to get defensive with the thought that people like them only because of their appearance and reputation. And that makes them lonely and detached, even from their close friends and families,” Dr Kim said.
Park Sang Hee of Sharon Counselling Centre, a psychiatrist who was also part of a girl group in the 1990s, wrote in an opinion piece that famous figures are often driven into depression by living an unstable and isolated life.
While celebrities are highly exposed to developing mental illness, they have limited access to treatment due to their high-profile lives.
According to Dr Kim, most public figures who suffer depression hesitate to openly visit mental clinics because they fear recognition. Some major K-pop agencies are said to have in-house counsellors for their artistes.
“We can’t identify our patients, but many celebrities are secretly seeing doctors, while a lot of them may still hide their mental illness,” said Dr Kim.
A manager of a K-pop artiste explained that it is hard to protect artists from stress even though they try to monitor their conditions as much as they can, saying that K-pop stars can’t run away from the pressure of living up to the public’s standards, especially when they have already tasted fame.
“We try to comfort them whenever they look depressed, but it’s hard to protect artistes from stress. For example, you think that they will be too busy to read online comments about them, but they read all of them. It’s just inevitable,” said the manager.
HELPLINES
Samaritans of Singapore (SOS): 1800-2214444
Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-2837019
