SINGAPORE (April 17): Richard Elman, founder and chairman of Hong Kong-based Noble Group, pretty much set the mood for the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Singapore today when he conceded at the start of the AGM that the last few weeks had been difficult for the commodities trader and its investors.

Taking issue with Iceberg Research's attacks on Noble's accounting practices and financial health, Elman said the allegations were "inaccurate, unreliable and misleading", and aimed at driving down the company's share price. Short seller Muddy Waters joined the attack last week.

"I feel aggrieved over what has happened over the past few months," Elman told shareholders. "The recent Muddy Waters report barely dignifies a response. It is a rehash of old allegations. It contains no new evidence. We will not be revisiting details of the allegations in this meeting."

His frustration was evident throughout the 1½-hour meeting. Elman, who started Noble in 1986, limited shareholders to two questions each on Noble's latest annual accounts and refused to answer questions relating to Iceberg's allegations.

"This meeting is not to discuss what other people are saying about Noble. We will not discuss that. We have said very categorically that there is nothing wrong with our accounting system. There is nothing wrong with our presentation. There is nothing wrong with the auditing."

Several shareholders who tried to ask more got cut off.

One of them, who identified himself as Lau and claimed to be a long-time shareholder, tried to ask a question on Australia-listed miner Yancoal, which Iceberg said was overvalued on Noble's balance sheet, but was not able to after Elman interrupted him.

That prompted a retort from another minority shareholder, Mano Sabnani, who said Elman was being "unnecessarily defensive and in denial mode".

"Why don't you relax? If you are not guilty of anything, why are you so uptight?" said Sabnani, drawing applause from some shareholders.

Noble took a US$200-million ($270-million) impairment charge on Yancoal, in which it has a 13% stake, in 4Q2014. The impairment, as well as other asset write-downs, left the company with a net loss of US$240 million for the quarter.

"The fact that we still have a minority stake in Yancoal is consistent with our business strategy of being asset light," Noble CEO Yusuf Alireza, who was more amiable during the AGM, told shareholders. "Show me one mining company that hasn't impaired their assets on the back of a significant drop in coal prices."

Alireza, who was co-president of Goldman Sachs in Asia excluding Japan before he joined Noble, said the company will endeavour to be more transparent with shareholders, but acknowledged that there were limits to how much it can disclose.

"In some ways, we are in the category of 1. We are the only public, rated, asset-light trader. All of our competitors are private companies.

"The issue with providing additional transparency, which we obviously have to do, is that our competitors don't issue quarterly results. So every time we provide additional information, they have additional information about us. Obviously, we don't have additional information about them."

Despite the run-ins between Elman and some shareholders at the meeting, all 12 resolutions tabled at the AGM were passed.

"We came into this year feeling that we're in an opportunity-rich environment. Your firm is very well positioned to capture those opportunities," Alireza said. "There is nothing that has happened in the first 3½ months of the year that changes our view about those two things."