Botswana wants quick separation of De Beers from Anglo, president says

Vector

29/05/2024 14:26

By Brian Benza
       GABORONE, May 29 (Reuters) - Botswana is hoping for a
quick separation of De Beers from the Anglo American Plc  AAL.L 
group before the UK-listed diversified mining giant is exposed
to a possible hostile takeover, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said
on Wednesday.
    Botswana, the world's top diamond producer by value, is
finalising a new ten-year gem sales deal agreed last June with
De Beers. The two parties had agreed to finalise the deal by
June 28 this year, but the proposed takeover of Anglo by the BHP
Group  BHP.AX  has brought uncertainty to the sales agreement.
    Anglo has rebuffed BHP and on Wednesday rejected the
Australian company's request for more time to discuss its latest
$49 billion takeover offer.
    Anglo plans to divest from De Beers and its other coal,
nickel and platinum assets to focus on energy transition metal
copper.
    Masisi said he would meet Anglo and De Beers executives at
jewellery industry trade event the JCK Show in the United States
this week.
    “One thing we don’t want is a hostile owner. We are watching
this very closely because whoever buys Anglo, if it is sold,
will then be the owner of De Beers and De Beers is our strategic
partner with whom we are at the tail end of our negotiations,”
Masisi told reporters as he departed for the United States.
    Botswana is a 15% shareholder in De Beers and accounts for
70% of the company's annual rough diamond supply.
    The renewal of the sales deal and mining rights for Botswana
and De Beers' joint venture mining company, Debswana, is vital
to the southern African country, which gets about 40% of its
revenue, 75% of its foreign exchange earnings and a third of
national output from diamonds.  
    “We have received some assurances and the reason for
travelling is to go and get that first hand from the principals
of Anglo and De Beers that they are committed to separating De
Beers from Anglo before Anglo is sold, if it is sold,” Masisi
said.
    Botswana needs to finalise the deal with De Beers so that it
can begin to benefit from the renegotiated terms agreed in June
2023, which include a higher allocation of rough diamonds from
Debswana to the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) and a
$750 million investment by De Beers into other economic sectors
over the next ten years. 

 (Reporting by Brian Benza; Editing by Nelson Banya and Mark
Potter)
 ((Nelson.Banya@thomsonreuters.com;))