Petropavlovsk (POG) halved its net loss for 2014 to $348m (£227m), but the relative improvement can be attributed to $562m in impairments booked the previous year. Cash profits for the Russia-focused gold miner declined by around a fifth to $252m, due in part to a 12 per cent fall in realised gold prices.
With net debt approaching the $1bn mark at the year-end, the group's primary focus is getting the balance sheet in order. To this end, Petropavlovsk recently secured the eleventh-hour support of shareholders for a debt refinancing scheme, involving a new $100m five-year convertible bond as well as a heavily discounted rights issue. Petropavlovsk's management, under the auspice of chairman and co-founder Peter Hambro, now plans to pare back net debt to below $600m by the 2015 year-end, from $707m at the end of March.