A meeting recently took place between Lazare Kaplan International (LKI) chairman Maurice Tempelsman and IDE president Avi Paz in Ramat Gan, involving discussions on LKI’s future plans of importing rough diamonds into Israel, moving a large section of its polishing business to Israel and opening an office in Ramat Gan.

Reports add that Paz has assured support from Israel’s local trade towards LKI’s local operations of rough and polished diamonds. The news of LKI shifting some of its operations to Israel followed by Antwerp Diamond Bank’s (ADB) terminating two credit facilities of LKI’s Antwerp subsidiary, with $43 million outstanding, reports say.

LKI is also working towards once again gaining compliance with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), having delayed the December 31 deadline of filing its annual report for fiscal 2009. The company has sought another five-month extension, reports say.