Petra Diamonds reports positive start to 2014 after strong Q3

23rd Apr 2014 07:45

Petra Diamonds has reported a 55 per cent climb in third quarter revenue, driven in part by a 15 per cent jump in production, as well as the sale of a 29.6 carat blue diamond, which was sold for 25.6m dollars. In the three-month period, production rose from 647,248 carats to 743,424 year-on-year, while revenue climbed from $105.7m to $163.9m. In the nine months to the end of March, production rose 26% to 2.38m carats, up from 1.89m carats in the same period a year earlier. Johan Dippenaar, Chief Executive Officer, said: "Petra continues to deliver further production and revenue growth, and these results demonstrate that the company is firmly on track to meet its full year target of circa 3m carats. "The diamond market has had an encouragingly strong start to 2014, further underpinning Petra's positive outlook for the remainder of the 2014 financial year."The group explained it had had a "strong start" to the calendar year within the rough diamond market, having achieved around a 10% increase in prices. It predicted the market would consolidate at around current price levels for the remainder of 2014. NR