Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad told media that the sale of the company’s 85 per cent stake in De Beers has attracted interest from ‘serious buyers’ and could be completed within the next six months.
“Our commitment to exit De Beers is unwavering. We are progressing with both a trade sale and listing options in parallel. We continue to make good progress on both tracks,” Wanblad explained.
He explained that the company had been looking for buyers who have a thorough understanding of the market.
“That then sifts down to a much smaller group of people that you would take through into a formal process. So that’s where we are now, with this smaller group,” he continued.
“All of the players in our process at this particular time are absolutely credible, in terms of (a) their understanding of the industry and (b) their ability to run and operate a business such as De Beers.
“They are associated with, and aligned to, and have experience of industry and markets in this space.”
These comments come after the latest financial report from De Beers revealed a 13 per cent decline in rough diamond sales over the past six months.
“Of course, this is a very big business, and we will probably need multiple balance sheets to support the acquisition of it, and therefore it’s probably reasonable to assume that in the process, there will be consortia and consortia formations that hopefully will prevail at the end of the day,” Wanblad explained.
The government of Botswana, which currently holds a 15 per cent stake in De Beers, recently expressed an interest in acquiring a majority stake in the company.
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