The DTC’s Sight in July, the first Sight of the second half of the year, was estimated at $550 million and, according to Sightholders, was very similar to the previous Sight both in terms of prices and in goods offered. While there was no price hike - one dealer said the make-up of boxes pushed up the prices - premiums on boxes remained high. Some sold at a 12 percent premium, some at a 30 percent premium, and some boxes, it was claimed, even sold for as much as a 40 percent premium.

Sightholders reported that they did not get goods beyond their ITOs (Intention To Offer - the intended allocation to each Sightholder by articles). During the Sight, some of the Sight-holders got feedback on their profile, given at meetings with DTC officials, during which each client also heard an explanation about their ITOs. Each Sightholder was told where he stood compared to his peers on each of one of the seven elements that make up the profile (such as finances, marketing, etc), and how much progress the Sightholder had made since the last review.

On that basis, and availability, the DTC decided how much of a requested allocation was actually supplied. In the end, the result was that bigger Sightholders received a bigger ITO, while smaller Sightholders received a smaller ITO. The built-in system favors the larger Sightholders.

What might this lead to? As one market observer noted, as De Beers’ supplies shrink - due to demand for direct supply for polishing in South Africa and Botswana and a possibly shrinking supply from Russia - there may possibly be no choice but to reduce the Sightholder list even further in the future.