STAFF WRITER
Minister of Industries , Mines and Energy Modestus Amutse has not yet been briefed on whether the country will join Botswana and Angola in acquiring a controlling stake in diamond giant De Beers.
Reuters this month reported that several African governments and business groups are eyeing De Beers as parent company Anglo American looks to sell its stake.
“This is a very important issue but in the meantime I do not have enough information to confirm whether we are going ahead or not. I have been in the region on many other projects that I need to acclimatise with. The story I read online has a lot of issues that I also still need to understand before I can comment convincingly,”Amutse told Namibia Business Review yesterday.
De Beers CEO Al Cook confirmed Botswana, Angola, and Namibia have expressed interest, alongside “a number of business-led groups,” but declined to disclose details of the talks or other potential investors.
The diamond group is also expanding globally. It opened its largest Forevermark store in Mumbai this week, aiming to reach 25 outlets by year-end and over 100 in the long term.
De Beers reported a 13% drop in revenue to US$1.95 billion (N$34.6 billion) in the first half of 2025, partly due to low prices, while shifting its focus to rising self-purchases in India. The company is also growing its Element Six division, which supplies synthetic diamond wafers to data centers, generating about US$300 million (N$5.3 billion) last year, after discontinuing its lab-grown jewellery brand, Lightbox.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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