De Beers CEO puts a sparkle on desultory results of third sale
For the year to date, the company is more than $100m behind last year
De Beers, the largest producer of rough diamonds by value, reported revenue of $520m for its third sale of 2018, the lowest level in at least three years. The income was substantially lower than that of the previous matching period and at the second sale. De Beers realised sales of $586m in the matching period a year earlier and it generated $563m for the second of 2018’s 10 annual sales the company makes to hand-picked clients who travel to Gaborone to buy diamonds from the 85%-held Anglo American subsidiary in events called sights. De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver was, however, upbeat about the sales numbers and the market in general. "While the second quarter of the year is traditionally a seasonally slower period, we continued to see good rough diamond demand in the third sales cycle of 2018 as diamond businesses have focused on restocking following healthy consumer demand for diamond jewellery in the US and China." In the first three sales of 2018, De Beers is $113m behind sales for ...
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