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Petra Diamonds shares tumble following rights issue
Shares of independent diamond mining group Petra Diamonds tumbled on Thursday after 332.82m rights issue shares with a nominal value of 10p each were admitted to trading to the premium listing segment of the London Stock Exchange's main market.
The roughly $170m of funds raised were to be used to help cut its debt, after the company suffered setbacks in Tanzania as well as production delays and strikes.
If they opted not to back the rights issue, the London-listed firm had warned, it risked running low on working capital and falling afoul of its debt covenants.
Petra shares lost almost half their value in 2017 following delays in its expansion projects and a seizure of a diamond consignment by Tanzanian authorities.
While the seized diamonds remained under dispute, five shipments had since been exported.
As of 1120 BST, Petra shares had tumbled 23.51% to 56.60p.