A CONSORTIUM led by Gareth Penny, the former CEO of De Beers, has emerged as the frontrunner to acquire the world’s largest diamond miner as the Iran conflict disrupts rival bidders’ efforts to secure financing, said Bloomberg News.
Anglo American is selling De Beers as part of a sweeping restructuring launched to repel a takeover approach by BHP in 2024, the newswire said. However, the process has been complicated by one of the diamond industry’s deepest downturns on record and Botswana’s ambitions to take majority control of the business, which it part-owns with a 15% stake.
Binding offers were originally due in mid-April, but Anglo has extended the deadline as at least three private consortiums continue to pursue the asset, said Bloomberg.
Rival bids are thought to have been submitted by Australian mining veteran Michael O’Keeffe and Israeli diamond trader Nir Livnat, who heads Diacore. Livnat has struggled to finalise financing from Middle Eastern backers, including Qatar, amid the regional turmoil, said Bloomberg. O’Keeffe is currently regarded as an outsider, it added.
Penny’s bid, backed by major diamond trading companies, would refocus De Beers on mining and marketing natural stones. He ran the company for five years before departing in 2010, steering it through the global financial crisis by idling mines and raising $1bn in a rights offer.
Anglo has been patient but cannot wait indefinitely, said Bloomberg. Botswana remains a pivotal obstacle: President Duma Boko has called for majority control, though the government may settle for doubling its current stake.
The wider industry backdrop remains bleak, with synthetic diamonds, weak Chinese luxury demand and trade tensions compounding a prolonged post-pandemic slump.
