Petra Diamonds has reported record profits for the year ending June 2008.

Petra Diamonds has announced strong financial results for the year ending June 2008, reporting group revenue up 352% to US$76.9 million (around £42m) and gross profit of $39.2m – mainly attributable to the company’s acquisition of the Cullinan and Kimberley underground mines from De Beers.

As one of the world’s largest independent diamond groups, Petra produced over 200,000 carats during the year, a number which is expected to increase five-fold to over one million carats in 2009.

According to the company, diamond prices have risen by 40% since January 2007, while the high-end goods market has grown more than 70%. With demand for diamonds at an all-time high – world retails sales are predicted to rise by 2-3% by 2009 – and diamond production anticipated to experience an overall decrease of around 10%, Petra is in an ideal position to benefit.

“Given that a certain number of Petra’s assets are renowned for the production of large, high-value and fancy-coloured diamonds, we are very well placed to benefit from this market dynamic and have indeed achieved record prices for the period across all our operations,” explained Adonis Pouroulis, Petra’s Chairman.

“We have at the same time established a world-class total resource base of 265m carats, worth US$27.3bn. Our focused exploration projects have the potential to increase this resource base still further.”

Petra Diamonds guarantees that all of its diamond production is conflict-free by only working in countries that are members of the Kimberley Process – an initiative to stem the flow of rough diamonds. It employs 4,000 people across its operations, which are based in South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.