De Beers Sells Stake in Gem Trading Business to Ponahola Holdings
South Africa’s largest diamond producer De Beers Consolidated Mines (DCBM) has sold a 26 percent stake in its local sales unit to black empowerment group Ponahola Holdings Ltd.
The move has been made just months before the government deadline to compensate for disadvantages caused by the apartheid system, although reports suggest the deal has been in the making for some eight years.
Ponahola acquired a 26 percent stake in DBCM for R3.7bn eight years ago and the new deal means it now has a stake in De Beers Sightholder Sales South Africa, the diamond sorting and valuation business, which holds 10 sales events a year known as sights.
It also means that De Beers has fulfilled its Mining Charter commitment to black economically empower both its mining and marketing operations.
DBCM’s largest diamond mine Venetia produces 40 percent of the country’s annual production and its other mine Voorspoed, one of the country’s newest mines is an occasional source of large and exotic coloured diamonds.
The company also helps to manage the Big Hole at Kimberly a major tourist attraction in the area and has a total of 1,007,676 hectares under licence.
Anglo American Plc owns 85 percent of De Beers after it bought the Oppenheimer family’s 40 percent stake in 2012 for $5.1 billion. Botswana controls the rest of the business, which was founded more than 120 years ago.
