Belgian diamond cutting and trading company HB Antwerp has announced the departure of one of its three co-founders due to disagreements over business strategy.
Antwerp said it had removed one of its three co-founders from management following differences over business strategy, a development that comes amid a pending sales pact with major producer Botswana, miningweekly.com reports.
The government of Botswana, the world's No. 1 diamond producer by value, said in March that it had agreed to buy a 24% stake in HB Antwerp. As part of the deal, state-owned Okavango Diamond Company would supply HB with an undisclosed quantity of rough diamonds for five years.
The deal is yet to be signed.
Oded Mansori, a long-time diamond dealer, said in a statement that he was "determined to defend his vision and to fight for the wellbeing and the future of HB," and that "a legal process is currently underway in court."
Mansori also said he was still a shareholder in the company.
The company came to the public’s attention in 2020 when it partnered with Louis Vuitton on the purchase of the 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond from Lucara Diamond Corp. The same year, it embarked on an almost unprecedented deal to buy all of Lucara’s 10.8-carat and larger rough from the Karowe mine in Botswana — a deal it later extended for 10 years. Its aim was to transform the big-stone market.
Lucara did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the legal tussle could impact its own deal with HB Antwerp.
In 2022, HB Antwerp partnered with Microsoft to track mined gems via blockchain, as consumers focus on clearing the supply chain of fraudsters and diamonds mined in war zones and sold to fund insurgencies.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
