Petra Diamonds secures 25m dollar credit line

Petra Diamonds said it had secured new credit to help it cover the volatile price of gems and the South African Rand.

The firm said the $25m credit facility agreement with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, was secured against its Finsch diamond mine in South Africa.

The new facility is in addition to the R300m debt - around $36.9m - it already has with Rand Merchant Bank.

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"Given the lead times between the group's now larger diamond tenders (post the acquisition of the Finsch mine) and the volatility experienced over the last 12 months of both the Rand and diamond prices, these new revolving credit facilities provide Petra with additional scope and flexibility to execute its capital expenditure programme and bring the company's stated production and revenue growth opportunities to account," it said.

The firm said the combined credit would strengthen Petra's financial position and its ability to roll out expansion plans and ramp up production to over 5m carats per annum by 2019.

The company has already announced it is in discussions with its bankers with regards to a longer term restructure of the group's debt.