Petra Diamonds finance director to step down, new CEO appointed

David Abery will step down from his role as finance director at Petra Diamonds to pursue other opportunities.

Following his departure, he will continue to be available to the company on an advisory basis for at least six months, as part of the succession process.

In addition, the company announced the appointment of Jacques Breytenbach as chief financial officer.

Breytenbach has held the role of finance manager of operations since 2006, with responsibility for financial management across the group's operations. He joined Petra from Anglo Platinum, where he held various roles, culminating in his position as finance manager of Capital Projects.

Petra said Koos Visser – who has held the role of group operating manager since 2005 – will be appointed chief operating officer.

Prior to joining Petra, he worked for Impala Platinum in a number of roles, culminating in his position as Utilities and Technical Services manager.

Chairman Adonis Pouroulis said Visser and Breytenbach’s new roles “will be integral to the daily management of the company and its operations, as well as to the delivery of our medium- to long-term strategy”.

He added: “Their extensive knowledge of the company, our operations and management of our capital investment programmes, as well as of the diamond mining industry and our local operating environments in South Africa and Tanzania, will continue to serve the company well."

RBC Capital Markets said: “We believe a clear succession plan involving experienced executives as new CFO and COO (RBC has had significant and helpful contact with both men) will be welcomed by the market given Petra is nearing the end of its large expansion programme.

"However the resignation of a CFO, particularly one who has been integral to the investor communications strategy, also creates some short-term uncertainty until investors become comfortable with the new executives.”

At 1126 BST, Petra shares were down 0.6% to 115.06p.