OREANDA-NEWS. November 27, 2009. A weekly executive meeting took place under the chairmanship of ALROSA President Fyodor Andreev. The agenda included the results of core product sales, ALROSA current financial and production statuses, results of the review by the ALROSA Budget Committee of financial plans of the Company’s subsidiaries and affiliates for 2010, reported the press-centre of ALROSA.

In November 2009 the ALROSA Group supplied total USD 338 m worth of rough and polished diamonds to its customers. Of these amount USD 327 m were sold to the market. The United Selling Organization of ALROSA marks a considerable increase in demand for rough diamonds. This trend is conditioned by an objective shortage of rough on the market resulting from a major shrinkage of supply from producer companies in H1 2009.

At the same time, in planning its operations for next year ALROSA relies on cautious scenarios, as no substantial rise in demand for end products, i.e. diamond jewellery, has been recorded so far. ALROSA will act responsibly as far as selling to the market is concerned, with maintenance of long-term relationships with major market players, support of demand and fair prices for rough diamonds being its priorities.

At present the total debt portfolio of ALROSA amounts to USD 3.85 billion. The overall debt reduction from the peak level has been by USD 1.2 billion. The reduction is the result of sales volume recovery and disposal of non-core assets. By the end of 2010 ALROSA aims to reduce its outstanding debt to USD 3.3 billion, and materially reduce the cost of debt servicing.

The President of ALROSA instructed the Company’s relevant structural units to make a comprehensive audit of OJSC Severalmaz operations and review the economics of the Lomonosov diamond mining project in the Arkhangelsk Region.