Post by Designer on Apr 12, 2005 15:12:29 GMT -5
De Beers takes shape for empowerment
April 12, 2005
By Nicky Smith
Diamond giant De Beers' local operations have been split and will start trading as separate businesses on Friday, positioning the company for an empowerment deal by the end of the year.
The group got final approval from the Reserve Bank and the SA Revenue Service last week for the split in its operations, officially separating De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) from some of the services it shares with its international affiliates, creating De Beers Group Services.
This is the fruit of 18 months of restructuring under the company's programme, Project Rainbow.
Speaking at the company's annual review, Gary Ralfe, the managing director of the De Beers group, described this as "a watershed" for the company, which had been preparing itself for an empowerment deal for the past 18 months.
Departments such as corporate finance, research and development, and offshore development had been stripped out of the local operations.
De Beers wanted a partner "across the whole of DBCM".
Ralfe said the company also favoured including the communities in which it mined as part of any deal.
Because of this, there would most likely be an element of vendor financing, where De Beers would either provide loans to the communities or "assurances", Ralfe said.
There were about 100 contenders hoping to be De Beers' empowerment partner, he said.
On re-entry into Angola, which is one of the world's most promising diamond areas, Ralfe said negotiations with state-owned diamond firm Endiama were continuing.
"I will be extremely disappointed if we're not up and operating in Angola by the end of the year."
De Beers suspended litigation against Endiama nine months ago.
Ralfe said De Beers, through its own "cultural evolution", had realised that its "arrogance" in the past had seen it lose out on new diamond projects such as the profitable Ekati mine in Canada because it was not the obvious "partner of choice" for junior mining companies.
It was trying to correct this, he said, and was now "aligning itself with juniors [mining companies]", especially juniors in Canada. It also had two junior partners exploring in Botswana and was actively exploring in the Democratic Republic of Congo Ralfe described this as "a very notable change in our corporate behaviour" and said De Beers wanted to be the "first port of call" for juniors looking for partners.
April 12, 2005
By Nicky Smith
Diamond giant De Beers' local operations have been split and will start trading as separate businesses on Friday, positioning the company for an empowerment deal by the end of the year.
The group got final approval from the Reserve Bank and the SA Revenue Service last week for the split in its operations, officially separating De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) from some of the services it shares with its international affiliates, creating De Beers Group Services.
This is the fruit of 18 months of restructuring under the company's programme, Project Rainbow.
Speaking at the company's annual review, Gary Ralfe, the managing director of the De Beers group, described this as "a watershed" for the company, which had been preparing itself for an empowerment deal for the past 18 months.
Departments such as corporate finance, research and development, and offshore development had been stripped out of the local operations.
De Beers wanted a partner "across the whole of DBCM".
Ralfe said the company also favoured including the communities in which it mined as part of any deal.
Because of this, there would most likely be an element of vendor financing, where De Beers would either provide loans to the communities or "assurances", Ralfe said.
There were about 100 contenders hoping to be De Beers' empowerment partner, he said.
On re-entry into Angola, which is one of the world's most promising diamond areas, Ralfe said negotiations with state-owned diamond firm Endiama were continuing.
"I will be extremely disappointed if we're not up and operating in Angola by the end of the year."
De Beers suspended litigation against Endiama nine months ago.
Ralfe said De Beers, through its own "cultural evolution", had realised that its "arrogance" in the past had seen it lose out on new diamond projects such as the profitable Ekati mine in Canada because it was not the obvious "partner of choice" for junior mining companies.
It was trying to correct this, he said, and was now "aligning itself with juniors [mining companies]", especially juniors in Canada. It also had two junior partners exploring in Botswana and was actively exploring in the Democratic Republic of Congo Ralfe described this as "a very notable change in our corporate behaviour" and said De Beers wanted to be the "first port of call" for juniors looking for partners.
Owner
