Aber Posts Record $34.3 Million Quarterly Earnings

Aber’s second quarter net earnings climbed to $34.3 million, the company's highest ever quarterly earnings. Aber's sales of rough diamonds and Harry Winston’s jewelry sales totaled $140 million.

Rough diamond sales generated $91.5 million while sales at Harry Winston totaled $48.5 million. This compares to rough diamond sales of $70.8 million and sales from Harry Winston of $44.9 million during the second quarter of 2005.

The company said net earnings for the current quarter include a future tax recovery of $6.6 million attributable to a phased reduction in the general federal corporate income tax rate.

Sales from the mining and retail segments for the second quarter were 29 percent and 8 percent higher respectively compared to the comparable quarter last year. The mining segment held three rough diamond sales in the current quarter compared to two in the second quarter of 2005.

Aber's earnings for the quarter from its 40 percent share of the Diavik diamond mine reached $43.8 million. Earning from its retail operation totaled $0.5 million. During the second quarter of 2005, earnings from Diavik were $37 million while retail earnings were $2.9 million.

Diamond production from the Diavik Mine was the highest ever on a quarterly basis, with Aber's share being approximately 1,088,000 carats for the three months ended July 31, an 8 percent increase over the comparable quarter in the prior year. Average price per carat during the quarter was $84.10.

The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share to be paid October 13.

Aber's Chairman and CEO Robert Gannicott stated, “Record diamond production this quarter has resulted from a combination of process plant enhancements and the mining of relatively higher grade portions of the ore reserve. The additional production enters our rough diamond sorting and sales pipeline well placed for timely delivery to the diamond market for the enhanced demand of the year-end holiday season."

Thomas O'Neill, President of Aber and CEO of Harry Winston added, “The new stores in Bal Harbour, Honolulu, and Tokyo provided additional growth over the prior year's quarter and the underlying gross margin was improved due to a greater proportion of sales from higher margin product.”