Petra Diamonds has suspended production at its Finsch Diamond Mine in South Africa as business rescue proceedings begin at the operation.
Daniel Theodorus Van Jaarsveld and Luke Bernard Saffy have been appointed as Business Rescue Practitioners for Finsch, a legal process under South African law that allows a financially distressed company or asset to be restructured under independent supervision rather than placed into liquidation.
The pair have taken custodianship of the mine and will prepare a Finsch-specific business rescue plan to submit to creditors for a vote.
Production at the mine has been suspended this week as an interim measure, pending completion of the plan and creditor approval of the proposed way forward.
Petra separately launched a formal bond consent solicitation on 29 May, seeking waivers from holders of its senior second lien notes to prevent a technical default triggered by the Finsch rescue process.
On 5 June the company received consent from more than 50% of those noteholders and executed a supplemental indenture to implement the waivers, avoiding a default event under the bond terms.
Petra said it would continue to update the market on material developments.
