NDTC Declares Second Dividend Payment For 2013

(IDEX Online News) – The Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) has declared a dividend of $7.7 million (80 million Namibian dollars) to its shareholders, the Namibian government and De Beers, which jointly own the company.

It is the second dividend payment this year, and brings the total paid in 2013 to $11.6 million (120 million Namibian dollars).

NDTC CEO Shihaleni Ndjaba said that the miner had enjoyed a good year, with revenue increasing by 26 percent to $1.1 billion (11 billion Namibian dollars) from $840 million (8.7 billion Namibian dollars).

"This positive growth is largely attributed to relatively higher diamond production coupled with favorable foreign exchange rates," said Ndjaba.

"Business performance was also impacted negatively by the prevailing challenging market conditions driven primarily by constrained liquidity, depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar, high stock levels in the mid-stream [sector of the diamond pipeline] and a slowdown in the Chinese and Indian economies."

Nonetheless, the company exceeded target expectations, he added.