De Beers Sell-Off? You Read it Here First
April 25, 24(IDEX Online) - The prospect of an imminent De Beers sell-off was first raised by IDEX Online as long ago as last December, by Erez Rivlin, market analyst and mining consultant, writing in a guest Memo.
He said Anglo American didn't share the same passion for diamonds as the Oppenheimer family that ran the company for almost a century - and which sold its 40 per cent share in De Beers to Anglo for $5.1bn in 2012.
He speculated that Anglo could consider a sale of its diamond activities, just as it did with its thermal coal operations in South Africa in 2021.
The world had changed significantly in the post-Oppenheimer era he said, thanks largely to the three new Biblical commandments for Western corporations - environment, social and governance (ESG).
In addition, an unintended consequence of sanctions on Russian diamonds (yet to be implemented when he was writing) was that De Beers could again have a monopoly and could be forced to prove it didn't abuse the situation and charge higher prices.
"One way out of these troubled waters would simply be to sell De Beers," he wrote.
The fact that De Beers operates all the way along the supply line - even into retail - was, he said, an uncomfortable fit for a global mining corporation.
Read Rivlin's full Memo here.
Pic shows a rough De Beers diamond and (inset) Erez Rivlin.