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Anglo American CEO Gives Insight Into De Beers Sale
The update came as Anglo took its third write-down on the diamond miner and marketer, which lost more than $500 million in 2025.
For the third time in three years, Anglo American has written down the value of De Beers Group amid a challenging diamond market. The company is looking to offload the business by the end of the year.
London—Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad shared some previously undisclosed details about the company’s sale of De Beers Group, which is expected to happen sometime this year.
Publicly confirmed in May 2024, the demerger or divestment is part of a larger restructuring that will allow Anglo to focus on “green” energy operations.
On the company’s full-year 2025 earnings call last week, Wanblad answered analysts’ questions about potential bidders for the diamond business and the timeline for the sale.
One analyst asked for more details regarding the bidders for De Beers, citing the various media reports on government interest, as well as interest from various consortiums, in acquiring the company.
Wanblad said, “They’re all consortia that are involved [in the bidding process]. Some of them include governments and some of them don’t.
“So, there is a possibility that our share will be sold in three parts potentially or two parts potentially. That depends on where we get to in the negotiation in the next few weeks.”
He also gave some color on when the sale will happen after an analyst asked if the “optimal scenario” would be for Anglo to sell De Beers before the company’s merger with Canadian copper mining company Teck Resources Ltd. closes at the end of the year.
“There is nothing in terms of the Anglo American portfolio restructure that is contingent on the completion of the deal with Teck. So, the sequence that you described would be absolutely ideal if indeed we could make that happen,” Wanblad said.
“The consequence of that is that it is highly likely if the deal [with Teck] closes around September or so of this year, De Beers will still be in the portfolio. I’m targeting, of course, to have it sold by that particular point in time, but it then will be running through its statutory and regulatory processes for completion. So, it would be in Anglo Teck’s portfolio until such time as it was gone.”
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Publicly confirmed in May 2024, the demerger or divestment is part of a larger restructuring that will allow Anglo to focus on “green” energy operations.
On the company’s full-year 2025 earnings call last week, Wanblad answered analysts’ questions about potential bidders for the diamond business and the timeline for the sale.
One analyst asked for more details regarding the bidders for De Beers, citing the various media reports on government interest, as well as interest from various consortiums, in acquiring the company.
Wanblad said, “They’re all consortia that are involved [in the bidding process]. Some of them include governments and some of them don’t.
“So, there is a possibility that our share will be sold in three parts potentially or two parts potentially. That depends on where we get to in the negotiation in the next few weeks.”
He also gave some color on when the sale will happen after an analyst asked if the “optimal scenario” would be for Anglo to sell De Beers before the company’s merger with Canadian copper mining company Teck Resources Ltd. closes at the end of the year.
“There is nothing in terms of the Anglo American portfolio restructure that is contingent on the completion of the deal with Teck. So, the sequence that you described would be absolutely ideal if indeed we could make that happen,” Wanblad said.
“The consequence of that is that it is highly likely if the deal [with Teck] closes around September or so of this year, De Beers will still be in the portfolio. I’m targeting, of course, to have it sold by that particular point in time, but it then will be running through its statutory and regulatory processes for completion. So, it would be in Anglo Teck’s portfolio until such time as it was gone.”
As expected, Anglo had to write down the value of De Beers for the third time in light of the company’s continuing losses.
In 2025, De Beers’ group revenue totaled $3.5 billion, up 6 percent from $3.3 billion in 2024. This included $3 billion in rough diamond sales, an uptick from $2.7 billion in 2024.
Production declined by about 3 million carats (21.7 million carats mined in 2025 versus 24.7 million in 2024) while rough diamond prices also fell, with the average ending the year at $142 per carat versus $152 per carat last year.
De Beers said lower rough diamond prices and its “stock rebalancing initiatives”—deals it made to offload significant volumes of rough—had a “significant” impact on its earnings.
The diamond miner and marketer also is grappling with competition from lab-grown diamonds and the effect of U.S. tariffs, which stand at 10 percent across the board as of press time.
The company recorded an underlying EBITDA loss of $511 million in 2025, up significantly from $25 million in 2024.
Anglo American, which owns 85 percent of De Beers (the government of Botswana owns the remaining 15 percent), took a $2.3 billion impairment on De Beers after writing down the value of the business by $2.9 billion in 2024, and $1.6 billion in 2023.
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