Why Noble's earnings are predicted to bottom out next quarter

Is this about losses?

According to DBS, Noble’s earnings are set to bottom out next quarter in the absence of Agriculture and Yancoal losses.

The Brazilian sugar mills are seeing improved efficiencies as they ramp up volumes, and for the crushing business, China operations saw an improvement with some production discipline seen.

Here's more from DBS:

In addition, the recent Santos fire, which pushed up sugar prices from 16-17 UScents/pound to 18-20 UScents/pound helped Noble.

Noble’s 3Q13 headline net profit plunged 55% y-o-y to US$30m (excl. US$7.1m loss on supply chain asset) despite a 13% increase in revenue.

Excluding losses of over US$90m from Yancoal, core profit would have been c.US$120m, a strong rebound from US$77m in 2Q13.

We highlight that the Agriculture segment reported operating profit of US$14m after two consecutive quarters of losses on the back of operational improvements in crushing plants and sugar mills. Group operating margins showed a slight 0.1ppt improvement to 1.5%.

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