PURCELL Dermot Desmond and Stuart Brown's Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPVD) lost one-half cent to 40 cents on 13,000 shares. Shareholders have formally approved the latest diamond sales agreement and a loan arrangement with Mr. Desmond's Dunebridge Worldwide Ltd. The approval, voted on at a special meeting held last week, doubles the amount of rough diamonds that may be sold, to $100-million (U.S.), from the original $50-million (U.S.). The new sales will be on the same terms as the initial deal, that had been reached in June.
Mountain Province has presumably exhausted the initial $50-million (U.S.) agreement, as by the end of June it had sold $22.6-million (U.S.) worth of run-of-mine rough from its 49-per-cent share of production from the Gahcho Kue mine. Further, the company sold more early in the third quarter and had expected to sell the full amount of rough to Dunebridge during the just-ended quarter.
Dunebridge bought the initial batch of diamonds for $33 (U.S.) per carat, discouragingly low, but at least they were sold, providing critical revenue to a company whose board unanimously agreed that it was "in serious financial difficulty." Mountain Province did hold back its special diamonds, which presumably accounted for some of the price drop. Further, the arrangement allows Mountain Province to get a 50-per-cent share of the profit from the eventual sale of the Dunebridge rough, although that company first gets to deduct a hefty fee for its troubles -- essentially 10 per cent of the eventual selling price per year.
Mountain Province did hold its first sale in several months into the Antwerp market, but that tender generated just $8.9-million (U.S.) in revenue. The average selling price, again without any high-value fancy and special stones, was $42 (U.S.) per carat. That was an improvement, but still awful at barely half of what the company had been averaging in 2018 and 2019, less than one-third of what it had optimistically projected in a feasibility study, and less than one-quarter of the rosy amounts the company had told eager shareholders were possible in the early 2010s.
With COVID-19 case counts again on the rise across Europe and the rest of the world, Mr. Brown, president and chief executive officer, is presumably looking to Mr. Desmond, his main backer, as insurance against a new lockdown at the major selling houses in Belgium and beyond. (Mr. Desmond, a billionaire Irishman who has invested in many a project over the years, from airports to professional soccer teams, has been putting money into -- and as yet been unable to take money out of -- Mountain Province and its diamond mine since the 1990s.)
Mr. Desmond's latest support for Mountain Province closed at the end of September, when the company's $25-million (U.S.) secured revolving credit facility was assigned to Dunebridge. It is a sweet deal for Mountain Province, carrying an interest rate of just 5 per cent per year. Further, for a one-year term at least, it comes without the troublesome covenants that Mountain Province had been unable to meet, only in part because of the COVID crisis.
Both the increased limit on rough diamond sales to Dunebridge, and that company's assumption of the revolving credit facility were approved by over 97-per-cent of Mountain Province's disinterested shareholders. They did not have much choice, as the deadline for a binding agreement for Mountain Province to repay the full $25-million (U.S.) facility to the then holders was just hours away.
All this dealing should pad Mr. Desmond's pockets handsomely -- assuming the story ends well. If it does not, while Mr. Desmond might be left with mountains of rough diamonds and a secured interest in the company's assets, the more than $100-million that he invested in the company's stock, valued at over $300-million several years ago, could be at risk.