* Shares end down 7 percent after news of share placing
* Former non-exec Beeck sells 20 million shares at 275p each
* Q2 output up 19 percent to 7.2 million silver equivalent ounces
* Reiterates full-year target of 28 million ounces
* To post loss of $5.3 million on forward sales in H1
(Adds placing price, amount of shares sold)
By Eric Onstad amd Victoria Bryan
LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - A former executive of Hochschild Mining Plc cashed in 55 million pounds ($90 million) worth of the company's shares on Wednesday, helping send its stock down after it posted a sharp rise in quarterly output.
Shares in the Latin American silver and gold producer, which had nearly tripled so far this year, closed down 7.1 percent at 279 pence after the share placing by former director Alberto Beeck. Hochschild declined to comment on the placing.
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan said they sold 20 million shares on behalf of Beeck at 275 pence each, up from an original plan to sell 15 million shares, and representing 6.5 percent of Hochschild's share capital.
Beeck joined Hochschild in 1998 and was an executive director at the time of the company's IPO in 2006. He stepped down from the company in September 2008 after moving to a non-executive role in May of that year.
The sale means 47 percent of Hochschild's shares are now in freefloat.
Earlier the London-listed group posted a 19 percent rise in second-quarter output but said it would record a $5.3 million loss on forward sales in the first half.
Hochschild said attributable production for the three months to the end of June reached 7.2 million silver equivalent ounces, up from 6.1 million a year ago, helped by expansion at its Arcata and Pallancata mines in Peru and San Jose in Argentina.
SOLID DELIVERY
"Hochschild (Q2 output) ... indicates a continuation of the company's impressively solid delivery against guidance despite the global economic downturn and strikes at the company's Peruvian and Argentinian mines during the period," said analyst Fraser Jamieson at Cazenove in a note.
Total attributable first-half output grew 17 percent to 13.9 silver equivalent ounces.
Hochschild will record a realised loss of $5.3 million for the first half due to forward sales agreements that were lower than the spot price. It also had a mark-to-market unrealised loss of $11.8 million as of June 30.
The firm said in the first quarter it had agreed to sell a certain amount of 2009 production in advance at fixed prices due to extreme volatility in the market. It sold forward 8.9 million ounces of silver and 30,000 ounces of gold, which equal 10.7 million silver equivalent ounces.
"We have achieved another quarter of strong production growth and remain firmly on track to achieve our full-year target of 28 million attributable silver equivalent ounces," Chief Executive Miguel Aramburu said in a statement.
Jamieson at Cazenove reiterated an "in-line" rating on the shares, noting their price-earnings ratio of 18 on forecast 2010 earnings was higher than the average of 14 for their peer group.
Hochschild said it has $200 million of long-term debt with interest fixed at 2.75 percent with annual repayments of about $57 million from 2010. (Editing by David Holmes and Rupert Winchester)