Business
Trading Update - Year ended 30 June 2011
Trading Update - Year ended 30 June 2011.
About this update from Petra Diamonds Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 6138K Petra Diamonds Ld 19 July 2011 \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\nImmediate Release\n\n\n19 July 2011\n\n\n\n\n \nPetra Diamonds Limited\n(\"Petra\" or \"the Company\" or \"the Group\")\n \nTrading Update - Year ended 30 June 2011\n \nRevenue increases by 24% to US$221 million\n \n \nPetra Diamonds Limited announces the following sales and production trading update (unaudited) for the year ended 30 June 2011 (the \"Period\" or \"FY 2011\"). The Company will announce its full financial results for the Period on 20 September 2011. \n \nThis has been a year in which the Company has confirmed its position as one of the world's leading independent diamond producers. With the closure of the Finsch acquisition expected in the coming weeks, the Company remains on track to more than double production in FY 2012, and is targeting 4 million carats in FY 2014 and over 5 million carats by FY 2019. \n \n \nKey highlights include:\n· gross mine revenue up 24% to US$221 million (FY 2010: US$178 million); adjusting for the exceptional sale of the US$35 million Cullinan Heritage diamond in FY 2010, revenue would have been up by 55%;\n· agreement reached with De Beers in January 2011 to acquire the Finsch mine in South Africa - Finsch will more than double Petra's annual carat production and increase the Group resource base to over 300 million carats valued at circa US$56.5 billion¹;\n· an equity raising of US$325 million in January 2011 (primarily to finance the Finsch acquisition cost of approximately US$210 million and strengthen the Company's balance sheet); and\n· an increasingly positive outlook for the diamond market as evidenced by the significant strengthening of diamond prices\n \nNote ¹ - internal estimate calculated by reference to the average tender prices achieved during the second half of the Period (\"H2 FY 2011\")\n \n \nHighlights\n \nSales\n· Gross mine revenue up 24% to US$220.6 million (FY 2010: US$177.7 million), being mainly due to the steady increase in rough diamond prices from October 2010, as evidenced by revenue of US$90.0 million in the first half of the Period (\"H1 FY 2011\"), rising to US$130.6 million in H2 FY 2011\n· Gross carats sold up...