noble
The company logo of Noble Group is displayed at its office in Hong Kong, China. REUTERS

Embattled commodities trader Noble Group is racing against time to meet its financial deadlines.

The company last month said it was in preliminary talks with "various stakeholders" to address the company's deteriorating financial position.

Noble Group's results highlighted the worsening liquidity conditions for the Singapore-listed trader. Liquidity headroom gives an indication of how much spare capital it has available to fund its business. The figure slumped to $800 million at the end of September from $1.4 billion three months earlier.

In a bid to stay afloat, Noble agreed to sell most of its oil business to Vitol Group in October and will be holding a meeting in Singapore on December 15 for shareholders to vote on the sale.

The Hong Kong-based firm has been forced to shrink its business, exiting loss-making and non-core operations in order to survive.

Last month, the company announced the surprise departure of its co-Chief Executive Jeff Frase, just days after it reported a third-quarter loss of $1.17 billion and warned that the operating environment remains challenging.

Noble Group shares were down 2.9 percent at S$0.13 on the Singapore Exchange. The trader's market capitalization, which once topped $10 billion, has shrunk to $180 million.