Noble wins court order to liquidate Ebullio Master Fund
By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen & Matthew Brown From Bloomberg
Noble Group Ltd. (NOBL) won a court order appointing liquidators for Ebullio Commodity Master Fund LP, which Asia’s largest raw-materials trader said had failed to pay it about $4.9 million for contract breaches.
Judge Andrew Jones of the Cayman Islands Grand Court accepted Noble’s petition and appointed Matthew Wright of RHSW (Cayman) Ltd. and Finbarr O’Connell of Smith & Williamson LLP as liquidators of the hedge fund, according to an Aug. 23 order.
Ebullio Capital Management LLP, which manages the $5 million fund, doesn’t comment on continuing litigation and its other funds aren’t affected “in any size, shape or form,” founder and executive managing partner Lars Steffensen said in interviews this week. Ebullio’s other operations have assets of about $250 million, he said.
A Noble unit sued Ebullio Commodity Master Fund on April 30, claiming it was insolvent after failing to pay damages when it breached two copper contracts. The hedge fund had said it had an oral agreement to roll over the contracts and filed for arbitration against Noble, saying they shouldn’t have been terminated, according to a May 24 ruling.
Stephen Brown, a Noble spokesman, declined to comment.
Noble Group, listed in Singapore, posted its third straight drop in quarterly profit in the three months ended June 30, dragged down by a loss at its agricultural business. Net income fell 68 percent to $62.8 million from $194.8 million a year earlier, it said. Sales rose 5 percent to $25.3 billion.
Ebullio Capital Management, based in Southend-on-Sea, east of London, has 25 employees, according to its website. Profit totaled 682,091 pounds ($1.1 million) in the year ended Sept. 30, 2012, compared with a loss of 880,886 pounds a year earlier, according to a filing with Companies House.
The case is In re Noble Resources International Pte Ltd and Ebullio Commodity Master Fund L.P., FSD No.56 of 2013 (AJJ) Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.
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