Vultures circle De Beers’ carcass, but for Africa, the scavenging is just beginning

The vultures are circling De Beers’ carcass. After Anglo American fended off multiple takeover proposals from BHP Group in 2024, it decided to restructure.

It sold its platinum group metals (PGMs) business last year, which is flourishing under the new name, Valterra Platinum.

Anglo also put De Beers on the block, but the demerger took a different turn from the PGMs sale. 

Since then, three consecutive impairments have gutted the company’s carrying value by $2.3 billion, with reports suggesting Anglo is willing to sell its stake for as little as $1 billion, which is sad given that it acquired the Oppenheimer family’s 40% stake in De Beers for $5.1 billion in 2011 to take its share in the diamond company to 85%.

Now, luxury giant Richemont—owner of Cartier—and US retail giant Signet Jewelers are reportedly in talks to pick at the remains.

To Western observers, this is the ultimate distress sale. 

Private equity, luxury houses, and retail chains are descending on the Global Diamond Consortium (GDC) to secure minor stakes, hoping to salvage value from a sector ravaged by a collapse in Chinese luxury spending and the relentless rise of lab-grown stones.

But while the vultures pick at De Beers’ carcass, they are missing the larger shift taking place beneath them.

For decades, Africa supplied the world with nearly 70% of its rough diamond value, only to watch the real wealth—the cutting, the polishing, the branding, and the retail margins—be captured thousands of miles away. 

Now, as the industry’s old monopoly crumbles under the weight of its own cyclical downturn, GDC is rewriting the rules of ownership. 

With Botswana nearing an agreement to increase its stake to around 25%, and Namibia and Angola firmly at the table, the continent is no longer just a supplier; it is becoming a principal.

African Diamond Council chairperson Dr M’zée Fula Ngenge told Rough & Polished recently that the market crash is not a death knell, but a clarion call. 

The forecasted decline in natural diamond supply to under 95 million carats this year—the lowest since 1987—should not be viewed with panic. 

Instead, Ngenge frames it as a mechanism of liberation. 

The market, he argues, is correcting itself after decades of "intentional profligacy."

In Ngenge's eyes, the retreat of the old guards and the contraction of the market presents the single greatest opportunity in a generation for Africa to move from the bottom of the value chain to its summit. 

The scramble by private investors and luxury conglomerates to secure their positions proves that the underlying asset is still highly coveted.

But the fundamental economics of scarcity are reasserting themselves, and this time, Africa intends to capture the value.

The irony of the current moment is palpable. Richemont and Signet are seeking entry into a consortium that is increasingly defined by African sovereignty. 

By accepting a larger yet still minority stake, the Botswana government and its partners are strategically ensuring that De Beers does not fall into distant boardrooms again.

The vultures may be circling, but they are circling a hollowed-out shell of a former monopoly. 

The true prize is not the corporate carcass in London or the trading floors of Antwerp, but the standards, the narrative, and the future of the stones themselves. 

If Africa acts with the courage and unity Ngenge demands, the scavengers will find that the continent has already taken the best meat for itself.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor-in-Chief, Rough & Polished