Diamond giant De Beers said on Wednesday it was finalising the sale of more than a quarter of its South African assets to black partners in a multi-million dollar deal, bowing to pressure to obtain more black ownership.
”De Beers and Ponahalo are pleased to announce that definitive transaction agreements have now been signed to implement the sale of an indirect 26% equity interest in De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) to Ponahalo Holdings,” the company said in a statement issued in Johannesburg.
It added that all the finance needed to ”fund the payment of the entire purchase price”, estimated at around R3,7-billion, had been raised.
Following the transaction, described by De Beers chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer as the ”most significant change of ownership since its formation in 1888”, the diamond giant’s South African arm will now be partly owned by Ponahalo.
The newly formed black empowerment company’s chairperson is Manne Dipico, a senior member of the ruling African National Congress, who owns an 18% stake in Ponahalo Capital.
Ponahalo Capital owns 50% of Panahalo Holdings.
The company also boasts other well-known black individuals such as chartered accountant Barend Petersen, appointed to DBCM’s board in 2002, and businessman Moss Mashishi.
De Beers, which appointed its first black managing director in September last year, has been under growing pressure to announce a black economic empowerment deal in line with government legislation.
The recently introduced Mining Charter has made it law for the traditionally white mining houses to be 15% black-owned within the next five years.
President Mbeki has made black economic empowerment a policy priority in a bid to redress imbalances from the apartheid era when whites held all the levers of economic power. — Sapa-AFP