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Anglo American cuts book value of De Beers to $2.3bn, reflects a convergence of structural and cyclical pressures

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Anglo American has written down the book value of De Beers for the third consecutive year, slashing it from $4.1bn to $2.3bn — a 44% reduction — as the diamond miner reported a catastrophic swing from a $25m EBITDA profit in 2024 to a $511m loss in 2025. This impairment brings the cumulative destruction of De Beers’ book value to approximately $6.9bn since 2023, when it stood at $9.2bn.

The deterioration reflects a convergence of structural and cyclical pressures: weak consumer demand, falling rough diamond prices, inventory overhang, growing competition from lab-grown diamonds, and the headwinds of US tariffs on Indian exports — the world’s primary diamond cutting and polishing hub. Anglo American’s CEO Duncan Wanblad has confirmed De Beers is in advanced sale discussions, with the possibility of a staged divestment in two or three tranches.

A central paradox defines De Beers’ 2025 results: revenue grew 6% to $3.5bn, yet the business collapsed into deep loss. This disconnect is explained by the composition of sales. Sales volumes surged 17% to 20.9m carats as the company executed stock rebalancing initiatives — essentially clearing accumulated high-cost inventory at sharply discounted prices. The average per-carat realised price fell 7% from $152 to $142, reflecting both weaker market prices and the deliberate sale of lower-quality, lower-value stones.

The stock rebalancing programme alone generated $424m in trading losses, as diamonds acquired and cut at higher cost were sold at prices below their carrying value. This single line item accounts for the overwhelming majority of the $536m swing in EBITDA.

Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad confirmed in the February 2026 earnings call that the company is in advanced discussions with a select group of interested parties regarding the sale of De Beers. This follows Anglo’s strategic decision to simplify its portfolio by divesting non-core assets, a process accelerated by a hostile takeover approach from BHP in 2024.

Wanblad’s indication that the sale may occur in two or three tranches — rather than a single transaction — is significant. A staged divestment could reflect:
difficulty in finding a single buyer willing to take the full stake at an acceptable valuation
• a desire to maximise aggregate proceeds by selling to different buyers with different strategic motivations
regulatory constraints in relevant jurisdictions

With the book value now at $2.3bn and the business generating a $511m EBITDA loss, prospective buyers face the challenge of pricing an asset through the trough of a cycle in a structurally disrupted sector. Potential buyers may include:

  • Sovereign wealth funds seeking long-duration commodity exposure
  • Private equity consortia with a turnaround thesis
  • Industry consolidators, potentially including Government of Botswana (which holds a 15% stake) or luxury conglomerates
  • Strategic investors from emerging market diamond consumer nations
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DiamondBuzz

De Beers Group Sets Out Portfolio and Organisational Actions to Support Long-Term Value Creation

Company outlines strategic cost optimisation, portfolio streamlining and operational changes to strengthen resilience while positioning for long-term growth in the natural diamond industry.

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De Beers Group is advancing delivery of its business streamlining by setting out a number of planned portfolio and organisational changes to ensure an efficient cost base that strengthens resilience in the near-term while enhancing future competitiveness and retaining optionality as industry conditions improve.

Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with its Origins strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in activities that create the most value. Significant progress has been made, with more than $100 million of annual overhead costs removed from the business, the sale or closure of a number of non-core assets and significant capital and cost reconfigurations to asset expansion projects.

Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond category marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns and collaborating with key stakeholders across the value chain to foster industry-wide investment. Global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, while natural diamond sales increased across US independent jewellers in 2025 and into Q1 2026, led by higher value diamonds and those promoted by De Beers’ Desert Diamonds marketing campaign.

On the supply side, global rough diamond production is now decreasing, with several producers closing mines during 2026. Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors.

Consistent with recent actions to improve business resilience, De Beers intends to pause production at the Venetia mine in South Africa for two years to reduce costs while also rephasing capital expenditure on its underground project. This will involve critical infrastructure investment to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the mine, with the intention to support future production growth as business and industry conditions improve.

De Beers is engaging with stakeholders in accordance with relevant requirements and the company’s values as it moves through this process, and will both support impacted employees and continue to invest in its community and Social and Labour Plan commitments.

This proposed action at Venetia Mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Canada.

In parallel, De Beers plans to reconfigure its global operating model to refocus and prioritise resources on the core operational businesses and reduce its central corporate cost base.

Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“In line with our commitment to focus and streamline our business, we are making a number of changes to De Beers to ensure greater business resilience in the near-term, while supporting long-term value creation. We recognise the protracted challenging conditions as the diamond industry evolves, though we are encouraged by signs of consumer demand growth in the US and beyond, particularly in higher quality diamonds.

Global rough diamond supply is falling, bringing more support to the market. The changes we are making to our business are focused on underpinning our efficiency now and into the future, favourably positioning De Beers in its leadership role.”

De Beers Group will maintain current production levels through its other operations, and previous production guidance remains unchanged.

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