Alrosa profits quadruple as diamond market recovers

Russian diamond mining giant Alrosa reported a fourfold increase in total profit to Rbs133.5bn for 2016 on Thursday, on the back of a global recovery in diamond prices.

Revenue at the company, the world’s largest diamond producer by volume, went up 41 per cent year-on year to Rbs317.1bn, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 49 per cent to Rbs 176.4bn.

Igor Kulichik, Alrosa’s chief financial officer, said:

2016 was a year of active recovery in the diamond market following the decline of 2015. The Company managed to deliver record-high financial performance and generate net cash flow sufficient to repay short-term and medium-term liabilities and pay out dividends to
shareholders.

EBIDTA nonetheless fell 30 per cent in the fourth quarter – the second-worst quarter in the company’s history – amid a trough in the diamond market and stable growth for the rouble, whose devaluation had helped lower costs for Russian natural resource producers.

Alrosa, which is majority-owned by the Russian government and the far eastern province of Yakutia where most of its operations are based, appointed Sergei Ivanov, the son of a close aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, as its new chief executive last week.

The government sold an 11 per cent stake for Rbs52.2bn last year and is considering a further offering that would take the company private.