MONDAY, 5.00PM:
ANGLO AMERICAN and De Beers announced further restructuring on Monday to make De Beers fully independent of Anglo American management structures, and to concentrate all Anglo-related diamond interests in De Beers.
Dealers treated the announcement with some scepticism, saying that the restructuring contained no surprises and had been timed to divert attention from gloomy international diamond sales figures — second half figures, also announced yesterday, were down 16% from last year. But the announcement did add 50c to De Beers’s share price to take it to R100, while Anglo slipped a rand to R193,40.
The De Beers restructuring follows Anglo American’s announcement last month of a restructuring of the company into independently managed companies focused on specialist interests such as gold, coal or industrials. The key new points are:
All employees of the Anglo American Diamond Services Division are to be employed by De Beers from January 1. De Beers will establish its own service departments to offer services currently drawn from Anglo American.
Anglo American will sell all its interests in De Beers and the Swiss-based Centenary to its investment arm, Anamint. A complex restructuring will result in Anglo American holding 67% of Anamint, which will in turn hold 34% of De Beers and 31% of Centenary. De Beers remains the largest shareholder in Anglo American.
Nicholas Oppenheimer will succeed Anglo’s Julian Ogilvie Thompson as chairman of De Beers, with Gary Ralfe, currently MD of the De Beers marketing arm Central Selling Organisation, appointed managing director.