13th Dec 2016 08:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC on Tuesday said De Beers' latest sales cycle of rough diamonds achieved a lower value than the previous sale, but said sales were still significantly higher than the previous year.
Anglo American owns an 85% stake in the diamond giant and classes the unit as one of its three long term commodities alongside copper and platinum. De Beers has held 10 sales cycles during 2016.
The value of the rough diamonds sold in the tenth sales cycle was USD418.0 million, lower than the previous sale that delivered a total value of USD476.0 million. Anglo American previously reported a provisional value for the ninth sales cycle of USD470.0 million.
The sale value of the eighth cycle was USD494.0 million.
The value of the latest sale was much higher when compared to the tenth sales cycle of 2015, which only achieved a value of USD248.0 million.
"We continued to see good demand for De Beers rough diamonds in our latest sales cycle. While the trade in lower value rough diamonds is experiencing a temporary slowdown as a result of the demonetisation programme in India, demand across the rest of the product mix continued to be healthy and overall sales remained in line with seasonal expectations," said Bruce Cleaver, chief executive of De Beers.
"Pleasingly, sales were also significantly higher than those for the equivalent cycle in 2015," he added.
Anglo American shares were up 0.2% to 1,212.0 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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