Anglo American has made its third cut to the “carrying value” of De Beers in three years, reducing it to $2.3 billion from $4.1 billion, the parent company announced Friday in its annual results. The carrying value is how much the business is worth on the owner’s books.

The net impairment of $2.3 billion before tax — or $1.8 billion after tax and other deductions — reflects lower diamond-price forecasts in the long and short term.

De Beers’ total revenue rose 6% to $3.49 billion in 2025. The figure was still low compared with past years, as “challenging rough-diamond trading conditions persisted.”

Rough-diamond sales on a 100% basis increased 23% to 23.9 million carats. On a consolidated basis, which excludes sales by joint-venture partners, sales volume rose 17% to 20.9 million carats, with the value up 11% at $3 billion. The miner’s rough-price index dropped 12% excluding “stock rebalancing initiatives” — special deals the company made to sell large volumes of less in-demand rough to sightholders at discounts. Including the deals, the price index fell 25%. The average selling price dipped 7% to $142 million on a consolidated basis, reflecting the index and the impact of these deals.

De Beers’ underlying loss widened to $739 million from $288 million the previous year. The underlying EBITDA loss mushroomed to $511 million from $25 million, reflecting the lower prices and the special deals. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Anglo’s group net loss widened 22% to $3.74 billion, mainly because of the De Beers impairment.


The Rapaport View:

The market had been anticipating a De Beers write-down since Anglo flagged two weeks ago that it was considering this. However, the scale is at the higher end of expectations.

Anglo gave two main reasons for the decision: A “prolonged shifting of customer preference between natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds” as well as a “surplus of availability of rough relative to prevailing demand.” Further factors include “macroeconomic uncertainty,” such as US tariffs and weak Chinese demand.

“Management has updated its best estimates regarding the expected timing of differentiation between [lab-grown diamonds] and natural diamonds to reflect higher penetration in the short term, although the residual impact on natural diamonds in the medium to long term remains unchanged,” the company said.

We have seen a gradual deterioration in Anglo’s view of De Beers and the diamond market. The parent company previously wrote down De Beers’ value in 2024 and again in 2025. In between those two shifts, in May 2024, it announced it planned to sell or de-merge De Beers. Once the crown in the jewel, De Beers had become a liability because of uncertainty in the natural-diamond market.

The parent company continues those efforts to offload De Beers. The company is “in the advanced stages of discussions with a select group of interested parties,” Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad said on a post-results earnings call. “All of these parties are strategic, and we are at the back end of our formal processes. We continue to have very constructive discussions with the government of Botswana, who, of course, are going to be crucial in the determination of the end point of this process.”

All of the potential buyers in the running are consortia, and some are governments, Wanblad revealed in the question-and-answer session. “There is a possibility that…our [85%] share [of De Beers] will be sold in three parts, potentially, or two parts, potentially. That depends on where we get to in the negotiation in the next few weeks.”

The rumored suitors include the governments of Botswana, Angola and Namibia, as well as a consortium led by former De Beers CEO Gareth Penny and other business figures, according to media reports.

De Beers’ financial results reflected a perhaps contradictory year for the company. Sales increased by volume and value. However, De Beers described revenue as being “subdued.” Sales were still very low by historical comparisons. In addition, the key driver of growth was not demand but a strategic decision to break with its usual policy of withholding supply during downturns and instead sell less desirable rough in special large-volume transactions to sightholders. The wide losses reflect the impact of these deals on margins.

As for the market, De Beers was notably critical of a few industry practices, albeit in a guarded way. While De Beers has aligned production with appetite for its supply, “demand for smaller and lower-quality diamonds experienced pressure in light of the growing supply from other producers,” the company said. This is most likely a reference to Angola’s mining industry, which sold large quantities of lower-value rough at discounts in 2025. Wanblad addressed this directly in the earnings call, noting that the market’s challenges were “exacerbated by the increased supply, specifically from Angola.”

In addition, Anglo blamed “some retailers” for delaying the full differentiation between natural and synthetic diamonds by maintaining “high retail margins on laboratory-grown stones despite the continued reduction in wholesale prices.”

Image: Rough diamonds. (De Beers)

Courtesy : Rapaport