By John Helmer, Moscow In his first extended interview since taking over Alrosa in July of 2009, chief executive Fyodor Andreyev said in a Moscow newspaper yesterday that Alrosa’s diamond investment strategy puts Russia first, Africa last. According to Andreyev, his predecessors’ efforts to build new diamond mines in Angola and explore for diamonds in […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 24th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Budding actors are usually taught to beware the unintended effects of spotlights. By focusing light, they can bring out an audience’s curiosity in what is going on in the dark, off stage, especially if the actor delivers lines that have been heard before, or delivered weakly.

by John Helmer - Monday, March 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Alrosa, the world’s number-1 diamond producer, has released a new planning document outlining production, earnings and diamond reserve targets after the start of three new underground mines, suggesting higher earnings than were calculated last year, and much longer mine life.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Alrosa, Russia’s state diamond monopoly, will be ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO) by late 2011 for a 20% stake in the company, Alrosa’s chief executive Fyodor Andreyev said cryptically on the sidelines of a Moscow investor conference on Wednesday. But will international investors be ready to buy shares […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow A Moscow newspaper claims today to have seen a document confirming that Russia’s diamond-mining monopoly Alrosa is trying to sell a 50% stake in the Lomonosov diamond field to Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining company based in London. Alrosa is the largest producer of diamonds in the world at present; Rio […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow No major shareholder obstacles now stand in the way of the reorganization of Alrosa’s corporate structure, but conversion to the open shareholding company format will take another six months, company spokesman Andrei Polyakov told Polishedprices.com today.

by John Helmer - Monday, December 20th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow Negotiations between Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing Ltd (SRDSIL), one of the largest cutters and polishers of diamonds in the world, are under way with Alrosa and the Russian state stockpile agency Gokhran. And just a few days after they began in Moscow, the Indian move has triggered an unusual domestic protest. […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 11th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow One of every ten dollars Alrosa is hoping to borrow from investors this month has been provisionally set aside to advertise Alrosa at the next three Olympic Games – London, Sochi, and Rio de Janeiro. This is the largest purse of Russian philanthropy, advertising, or giveaway ever publicly offered to western […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 28th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Sakha government has agreed to a reorganization of the Alrosa shareholding, legalizing open-market trading of Alrosa shares for the first time, and promising a privatization of state-owned shares soon. The Yakuts will not agree, however, to privatizing more than 20% to 25% of Alrosa shares; the federal government and […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 24th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow A Moscow brokerage named Metropol has recommended buying Alrosa shares with the promise of a 72% upside in value. But there’s a catch. At present, it isn’t quite legal for those who don’t already own shares in the closed joint stock company form of Alrosa to buy and sell them.

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 9th, 2010
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