Placing of New Shares

 

TIDMAFD 
 
RNS Number : 6934J 
African Diamonds PLC 
06 April 2010 
 
 
 
 
 
6th April 2010 
 
                              Placing of New Shares 
 
·     Placing to raise GBP9.6 million 
·     African Diamonds to increase its stake in AK6 to 40% 
 
African Diamonds plc (AIM: AFD), the Botswana diamond company, is pleased to 
announce it has undertaken a conditional placing of 24,146,500 ordinary shares 
at a price of 40 pence per share, in conjunction with FinnCap, to raise 
approximately GBP9.6 million before expenses.  The shares will be placed under 
the existing share authorities and will rank pari passu with the existing issued 
ordinary share capital. 
 
The proceeds of the placing will be used in three ways.  Firstly, to increase 
African Diamonds' share in AK6 to 40%; secondly, to fund African Diamonds' 
portion of the early works budget on AK6; and thirdly, for general working 
capital and exploration.  The early works programme includes orders for 
long-lead time capital equipment and mine site development.  Exploration will be 
focused on African Diamonds' 100% owned AK8, AK9 and BK5 projects, all located 
in the vicinity of AK6 in Botswana. 
 
African Diamonds' directors and families will invest, in aggregate, GBP1 million 
in the placing.  Following the placing, there will be 100,357,266 ordinary 
shares in issue and the directors' interests are as follows: 
 
No of shares                      Percentage                         No of 
shares                      Percentage 
                                before placing                   before placing 
                 following placing             following placing 
 
John Teeling   3,295,820                     4.32 
4,045,820                     4.03 
David Horgan 2,795,720                     3.67 
3,295,720                     3.28 
James Finn      2,795,820                     3.67 
3,295,820                     3.28 
 
 
The participation of the directors of the Company and their families, as 
discussed above, in the placing is a related party transaction.  It is the view 
of the Independent Directors, being Mr James Campbell and Mr Alex Van Zyl, who 
have been so advised by FinnCap, that the participation of the directors and 
their families in the placing is fair and reasonable insofar as its shareholders 
are concerned. In providing advice to the Independent Directors, FinnCap have 
taken into account the Independent Directors' commercial assessment. 
 
 
 
 
Application for 24,146,500 new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM 
has been made.  Admission is expected on 8th April 2010 (other than for the 
shares to be issued to directors which will be admitted on receipt of their 
funds at the end of April). 
 
John Teeling, Chairman, commented: 
"I am delighted by the support African Diamonds has received from a significant 
number of institutional investors.  The funds raised will be used to increase 
our stake in the AK6 diamond project to 40%, to fund an early works programme on 
the mine, and to explore promising diamond targets on our Botswana acreage. 
 
As the final studies on AK6 are nearing completion, the fundamentals of the mine 
continue to improve.   The mine is expected to come on stream in late 2011. 
 
During the struggle to commercialise the AK6 discovery, our top quality 
exploration ground was ignored.  Targets such as AK8 and AK9 are known to 
shareholders, but we have other prospective kimberlites, in particular, BK5.  We 
now have the time and money to focus on these targets.  There are more diamond 
mines to be discovered in Botswana". 
 
This release has been approved by Alex van Zyl, Technical Director African 
Diamonds.   Alex van Zyl (B.Sc. Stellenbosch, B.Sc. Hons. Pretoria) spent a long 
career in Anglo American in the diamond division, ending up 1990 to 1997 with 
worldwide responsibility for diamond exploration and evaluation. He was a 
consultant to De Beers from 1997 to 2002. 
 
Further information: 
African Diamonds Plc 
John Teeling                                             Tel: [phone] 
James AH Campbell                                 Tel: [phone] 
Finn Cap 
Clive Carver, Corporate Finance              Tel: [phone] 
Henrik Persson, Corporate Finance        Tel: [phone] 
Joanna Weaving, Corporate Broking       Tel: [phone] 
College Hill 
Nick Elwes                                                Tel: [phone] 
2020 
 
 
                               www.afdiamonds.com 
 
This information is provided by RNS 
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange 
   END 
 
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