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- De Beers float could be scuppered by weak demand for natural diamonds
Plans to float De Beers could be scuppered by weak demand for natural diamonds.
Speculation comes just three months after FTSE 100 miner Anglo American announced its diamond business would be ‘divested or demerged’.
In May, Anglo said it wanted to focus on copper and iron ore in reaction to a hostile takeover battle with Australian peer BHP.
Plans to float De Beers could be scuppered by weak demand for natural diamonds
A De Beers spokesman told The Mail on Sunday it was working on a potential listing and a sale of the business as ‘both options are very much on the table’.
But Raj Ray, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said public markets had been challenging for diamond firms.
He pointed to subdued demand from China, inflation hitting consumer savings in the US and lab-grown diamonds undercutting prices.
He added: ‘While the long-term fundamentals of the natural diamond market still look promising with significant supply decline expected by the end of this decade, the near to medium-term outlook remains muted.’
A £4billion stock market listing of De Beers would see it follow in the footsteps of some of its rivals.
Lucara, which recently found the second-largest diamond in history, is listed in Botswana, Canada and Sweden.
But when asked about buying De Beers, Lucara said it was ‘focused’ on starting production in the Karowe mine in Botswana in 2028.
De Beers, founded in 1888, is owned by Anglo and the government of Botswana.
It is the world’s largest diamond miner by market value and is famous for creating the advertising slogan ‘a diamond is forever’ in the 1960s.
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