Petra Diamonds subsidiary gains loan facilities

Petra Diamonds's wholly owned subsidiary Afropean Diamonds has entered into an agreement with Rand Merchant Bank for new debt facilities of ZAR400m (around $48m).

The loan is secured on the assets of Afropean in respect of the Finsch diamond mine in South Africa and the company's interest in Afropean.

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In a statement the firm said: "The debt facilities provide for flexibility around the working capital requirements of Finsch as well as providing the group with greater financial flexibility as it continues with the roll out of its capital expansion plans."

Before entering into the debt facilities, Afropean had no existing external debt, having been fully funded to date by Petra.

Petra's chief executive Johan Dippenaar added: "We are delighted to have agreed terms for these financing facilities with RMB, which are in addition to the existing debt lines we have in place with both RMB and IFC of approximately $83 million. These credit facilities further strengthen our balance sheet and provide assurance to the roll-out of our expansion plans to take group production to over 5 million carats by FY 2019."

The share price rose 6.16% to 107.75p by 14:05.

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