By Mbongeni Mguni and Thomas Biesheuvel.
Caption: Gareth Penny. Image Credit: Ninetyone.com.
The group in pole position to buy De Beers said it aims to bring customers back to real diamonds, and away from the synthetic gems that have deepened an industry crisis.
The Global Diamond Consortium, headed by former De Beers chief executive officer Gareth Penny, is in the closing stages of completing its purchase of the company after fending off rival bids. Crucially, the group won the support of Botswana, home of the diamond giant’s biggest mines.
Still, the GDC is poised to take over De Beers as the diamond industry slowly emerges from its deepest ever crisis. The gem market has been hammered by a slump in Chinese luxury spending, as well as the rising popularity of synthetic stones.
Synthetic – or lab-grown – diamonds are chemically identical to mined stones, yet an explosion in low-cost supply from China and India has seen prices plummet. That has put huge pressure on segments of the jewellery market where pinched consumers can buy synthetic gems for a fraction of the price. Now GDC wants to spur demand for natural diamonds.
“The market is still experiencing challenges and they are all about consumer demand and finding a way to address synthetics,” a GDC representative said, in some of the group’s first public comments on its plans.
Ever since De Beers monopoly collapsed at the start of this century, the industry has grappled with how to promote diamonds and fight off challenges like synthetic stones. Multiple attempts at industry-wide marketing have failed to deliver, while De Beers own foray into lab-grown gems was quickly aborted.
“This is about effective marketing because this is a demand side problem,” according to the GDC representative. “We want to find new, innovative ways to create demand for diamonds and we believe we have a lot of good strategies for that.”
The GDC has built a consortium of some of the industry’s biggest players. Botswana will double its De Beers stake to 30%, while other producing countries Namibia and Angola will also invest. Oman and some key customers are also in the group, while luxury house Richemont and retailer Signet Jewellers are in talks to join, Bloomberg has previously reported.
“This is the time for everyone to work together and for the industry to unite,” the GDC representative said. “Each partner needs to bring its own competitive advantage and a common vision to lift natural diamonds to where they should be and that’s something that we are working towards.”
Anglo American has been looking to sell De Beers since fending off an almost $50 billion approach from BHP Group in early 2024, but the process has been stymied by the diamond market crisis. Anglo has taken three impairments on the business in just three years, lowering its carrying value for De Beers to $2.3 billion in February.
Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Anglo is discussing a De Beers valuation of about $1 billion, with more payments based on the future performance of the business.
“It’s a process with Anglo American and we are trying to get things finalised as quickly as we can,” the GDC representative said.
© 2026 Bloomberg.