Anglo Nears De Beers Sale As Three Potential Buyers Emerge

Anglo American AAUKD is nearing the start of a formal sales process for its diamond unit, De Beers. The firm has owned the brand since 2011, but a comprehensive restructuring following a failed $49 billion bid from BHP last year has led the firm to focus on other commodities.

According to Bloomberg, three interested bidders are for the 136-year-old diamond brand, including former De Beers CEOs Gareth Penny and Bruce Cleaver and Australian mining executive Michael O'Keeffe.

Penny, who led De Beers during the 2008 financial crisis, now chairs Ninety One NINTF, an investment firm managing over $175 billion in assets. Cleaver, who stepped down as De Beers CEO in 2023, currently chairs Gemfields PLLHF, a gemstone miner focused on emeralds and rubies.

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Meanwhile, O'Keeffe is a long-time resource investor and the chairman of Burgundy Diamond Mines BDMMF, the owner of Canada's Ekati mine, and a former head of Riversdale Mining, which he sold to Rio Tinto for $3.7 billion in 2011.

Anglo-American insiders say the company favors a sale over a demerger or an initial public offering, although all options remain on the table, depending on market conditions.

CEO Duncan Wanblad has stated that the group will be patient in avoiding destroying value. Over the past two years, the diamond sector's volatility has pushed Anglo to write down De Beers' valuation to $4.1 billion — a $4.5 billion drop in just over a year.

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The sale of De Beers would finalize Wanblad's broader plan to refocus Anglo on core assets. In recent months, the company has agreed to divest its coal and nickel operations and completed the spin-off of its platinum business, rebranded as Valterra.

But while Anglo resets, the diamond market itself is in crisis. A collapse in Chinese luxury demand, growing consumer preference for lab-grown stones, and broader questions over the cultural relevance of natural diamonds have all eroded market fundamentals.

In Q1 2025, De Beers reported a 44% decline in revenue and now holds $2 billion of unsold inventory.

Sanctions on Russian rival Alrosa, layoffs at Lucapa and Koidu, and declining sales at Petra Diamonds show the poor state of the market. Even De Beers recently shut down its Lightbox lab-grown diamond brand, looking to return to its roots and find value in natural stones.

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