News Briefs

RAPAPORT… ALROSA’s board approved new fiscal-year targets in line with its earlier projections. The company expects to produce $2.32 billion worth of rough diamonds in 2010 and anticipates consolidated rough and polished diamond sales of $3.42 billion. The board also projected total rough sales of $3.29 billion and polished sales of $125 million for 2010.

ALROSA hopes to achieve a net profit of $193.3 million (RUB 5.93 billion) for the year. The board approved an investment budget of $987.8 million (RUB 30.3 billion) with capital expenses of $319.4 million (RUB 9.8 billion) and an exploration budget of $91.3 million (RUB 2.8 billion).

In related company news, J.P. Morgan valued ALROSA between $7.3 billion and $9 billion, excluding debt, the business daily Vedomosti reported, citing work J.P. Morgan carried out for ALROSA. The article also cited a wider range for ALROSA’s value: $5 billion to $10 billion.

ALROSA recently completed a Eurobond placement worth $1 billion with a consortium of banks, including J.P.Morgan, UBS and VTB Capital, acting as organizers for the flotation. The securities have been placed for ten years and the interest rate is set at 7.75 percent per year. ALROSA is poised to use the proceeds from the placement to refinance its current debt.