DiamondBuzz
De Beers sale will involve Botswana plus one or two buyers
Anglo American is fast-tracking the sale of its crown jewel, De Beers, in an unusually streamlined process that skips the traditional two-round bidding. Instead, the mining giant will move forward with just “one or two” shortlisted buyers — in close coordination with the government of Botswana, its long-time diamond partner. Anglo American is expected to raise $3bn to $4bn from the sale of its 85 per cent stake in the loss-making diamond miner. The remaining 15 per cent is owned by the government of Botswana, which wants to secure a majority holding,
Among those vying for a piece of the diamond major are some familiar industry names. Angola’s state-owned Endiama has proposed a pan-African partnership spanning Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Speculation also swirls around potential bids from Qatari and Gulf investors.
Anglo will hold direct talks with selected bidders alongside Botswana, which owns 15% of De Beers through its Debswana joint venture. Wanblad said he expects the sale process to conclude within six months but did not rule out spinning off De Beers if negotiations fail.
The government’s participation marks a shift in tone after President Duma Boko criticized Anglo’s handling of De Beers and said his administration could run it more effectively. De Beers swung to a $189 million loss in the first half of 2025 from a $300 million profit a year earlier amid weak diamond prices, adding pressure for a deal.
Anglo values De Beers at about $5 billion, though analysts at UBS estimate the sale could generate between $3 billion and $4 billion, including deferred payments, given challenging market conditions.
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.
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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