Rough diamond demand shows slow recovery
Business
Global diamond mining giants De Beers Group continued to offer its sight holder’s further flexibility during its sales cycle 9, a statement from the De Beers parent company Anglo American reveals.
According to the communiqué from the London headquartered PLC rough diamond sales at De Beers Global Sight holder Sales and Auctions amounted to $390 million. This mirrors a significant pick up from Cycle 8 figure of $297 million. However when gauged against 2018 cycle 9 the sales value depicts 29 % decline when compared to $442 million registered in the same cycle last year.
Commenting on the Cycle sales outcome Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Group Bruce Cleaver said the global market on polished diamonds demand was showing signs of slight improvement “With signs of increasing polished price stability, Cycle 9 saw an improvement in sentiment from rough diamond buyers,” he said.
Bruce further explained that global consumer demand for diamond jewellery at the retail level continues to be broadly stable but, with midstream trading conditions still in the process of rebalancing. “We continued to offer Sight holders further flexibility during the Sight to provide support,” he said. The global rough diamond market has been subdued in the larger part of 2019 with sales figures reaching record low levels in June. For its eighth sales cycle of 2019 De Beers recorded another low turn up mirroring slow sales for the third time in a row as global rough diamond market downturn persisted.
The sale of the rough diamonds which is happening mainly in Gaborone at the De Beers Global Sight holder Sales (DBGSS) as well small Auction Sales in South Africa and Namibia amounted to an actual figure of $297 million for Cycle 8. Though a slight pick up from $287 million recorded in cycle 7 this was 38.7 5% lower than the actual sales figure of the same cycle in 2018. Last year cycle 8 hit actual sales value of $482 million.
De Beers’ rough diamond sales were also very slow in August (cycle 7) the provisional revenues at the seventh sight of 2019 totaled to $280 million. This was significantly lower than the $503 million sold at Sight 7 2018 by 44 %. Cycle 6 was also low; it registered the lowest amount earned from a sale since December 2015 at $250 million.
As with the previous sights, De Beers continued to give its clients the opportunity to leave up to 50% of available goods on the table to lower the pressure on buyers without lowering their prices. As announced in an internal communiqué to sight holders in August De Beers said it would also buy back up to 20% by carat weight of customers’ purchases instead of the typical 10%, specifying that they could not use both options on the same box of goods.
The company is offering several options to increase the flexibility for manufacturers and traders struggling with an oversupply of rough and polished: in addition to the higher level of buybacks – whereby customers purchase the diamonds and then sell them back to De Beers at an agreed price, while having those purchases count toward their 'demonstrated demand' which determines future allocations. De Beers also enabled buyers to make additional deferrals of goods to later sights, and set an earlier date on the annual opportunity for customers to reschedule their purchases.
When commenting in August after cycle seven Bruce Cleaver said, “With midstream participants continuing to work down polished diamond inventory levels and reduced levels of manufacturing in the key cutting centres, De Beers Group provided customers with further supply flexibility during the seventh cycle of 2019.”
Diamond Industry experts note that the market requires this flexibility approach. David Harari, a renowned rough diamond trader says particularly with De Beers keeping prices stable, clients are trying to buy as little rough as possible as they wait for polished demand to pick up. Harai observes that buyers wish to avoid producing expensive rough and being stuck with goods that polished buyers don’t want.
"The remedy at the moment is for rough producers to cut production and sales to reduce the surplus of goods in the pipeline ,of course, clients want cheap rough so they can make some profit in manufacturing or trading, but even that is not possible at the moment," he said.
De Beers decreased its rough diamond production in Q2 by 14% to 7.7 million carats and revised its full-year guidance downwards to 31 million carats in response to a backlog of polished diamond inventories in the midstream and weaker trading conditions.
Business
Grit divests from Letlole La Rona
Grit Services Limited, a member of the pan African real estate group, London Stock Exchange listed Grit Real Estate Income Group is divesting from Letlole La Rona Limited (LLR), a local real estate company established by government investment arm Botswana Development Corporation over a decade ago.
The Board of Directors of Letlole La Rona Limited this week announced in a statement to Unitholders that Grit Services Limited (‘Grit’) has informed them of its intention to exit its investment in the company.
Grit has been a material shareholder in LLR since 2019. On 07 March 2023, Grit sold 6 421 000 linked units, representing 2.29% of the Company’s total securities in issue, at a market value of BWP 22 537 710.
This trade follows previous sales of 6.79% in December 2022, as communicated to Unitholders on 10 January 2023, as well as a further sale of 4.78% (representing 13 347 068 linked units) on 24 February 2023 to various shareholders.
In aggregate, Grit has sold 13.9% shareholding in the Letlole La Rona between December 2022 and March 2023, resulting in current shareholding of 11.25% in the Company.
Letlole La Rona said in the statement that the exit process will take place in an orderly manner so as to maintain stability of the Company’s share price.
The statement explained that Grit’s sale of its entire shareholding in LLR is in line with its decision to exit investments where it does not have majority control, or where it has significant exposure to currencies other than US dollar, Euro or hard-currency-pegged revenue streams.
“Grit has announced similar decisions pertaining to certain of its hospitality assets in Mauritius recently. The Company would like to advise Unitholders that it remains focused on long-term value delivery to all stakeholders” LLR said
In July last year as part of their Go-to-Africa strategy Letlole La Rona acquired an initial 30% equity stake in Orbit Africa Logistics, with an option to increase this investment to 50%. OAL is a special purpose vehicle incorporated in Mauritius, owning an industrial asset in a prime industrial node in Nairobi, Kenya.
The co-investment was done alongside a wholly owned subsidiary of London listed Grit. The Orbit facility is situated on a prime industrial site on Mombasa Road, the principal route south of Nairobi center, serving the main industrial node, the port of Mombasa and the industrial town of Athi River and is strategically located 11 kilometers south of the international airport and 9.6 kilometers from the Inland Container Depot.
Grit shareholding in Letlole La Rona was seen as strategic for LLR, for the company to leverage on Grit’s already existing continental presence and expand its wings beyond Botswana borders as already delivered by Kenya transaction.
Media reports have however suggested that LLR and Grit have since late last year had fundamental disagreements on how to go about the Go-to-Africa strategy amongst other things, fuelled by alleged Botswana government interference on the affairs of LLR.
Government through LLR founding shareholder – Botswana Development Corporation has a controlling stake of around 40 percent in the company. Government is the sole shareholder of Botswana Development Corporation.
Letlole La Rona recently released their financial results for the six months ended December 2022, revenue increased by 4% to P50.2 million from P48.4 million in the prior comparative six months, whilst operating profit was up 8% to P36.5 million. Profit before tax of P49.7 million was reported, an increase of 8% on the prior comparative six months.
“We are encouraged by the strong results, notwithstanding a challenging economic environment. Our performance was mainly underpinned by annual lease escalations, our quality tenant base and below average market vacancy levels, especially in our warehouse portfolio,” Kamogelo Mowaneng, Letlole La Rona Chief Executive Officer commented.
LLR reported a weighted average lease expiry period of 3.3 years and escalation rates averaging 6.8% per annum for the period ended 31 December 2022.Its investment portfolio value increased by 14% year-on-year to close the period at P1.4 billion, mainly driven by the acquisition of a 30% stake in OAL in July 2022.
The Company also recorded a significant increase in other income, predominantly due to foreign exchange gains on the OAL shareholder loan. “We continue to explore pipeline opportunities locally, and regionally in line with our Go-to-Africa strategy and our interest remains on value-accretive investments,” Mowaneng said.
An interim distribution of 9.11 thebe per linked unit was declared on the 6th of February 2023 for the half-year period to 31 December 2022, comprising of a dividend of 0.05 thebe and debenture interest of 9.06 thebe per linked unit which will be paid to linked unit holders registered in the books of the Company at the close of business on 24 February 2023.
Business
Stargems Group establishes Training Center in BW
Internationally-acclaimed diamond manufacturing company StarGems Group has established the Stargems Diamond Training Center which will be providing specialized training in diamond manufacturing and evaluation.
The Stargems Diamond Training Institute is located at the Stargems Group Botswana Unit in Gaborone.
“In accordance with the National Human Resource Development Strategy (NHRDS) which holds the principle that through education and skills development as well as the strategic alignment between national ambitions and individual capabilities, Botswana will become a prosperous, productive and innovative nation due to the quality and efficacy of its citizenry. The Training Centre will provide a range of modules in theory and in practice; from rough diamond evaluation to diamond grading and polishing for Batswana, at no cost for eight weeks. The internationally- recognized certificate offered in partnership with Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Training School presents invaluable opportunities for Batswana to access in the diamond industry locally and internationally. The initiative is an extension of our Corporate Social Investment to the community in which we operate,” said Vishal Shah, Stargems Group Managing Director, during the launch of the Stargems Diamond Training Center.
In order to participate in this rare opportunity, interested candidates are invited to submit a police clearance certificate and a BGCSE certificate only to the Stargems offices. Students who excel in these programs will have the chance to be onboarded by the Stargems Group. This serves as motivation for them to go through this training with a high level of seriousness.
“Community empowerment is one of our CSR principles. We believe that businesses can only thrive when their communities are well taken of. We are hoping that our presence will be impactful to various communities and economies. In the six countries that we are operating in, we have contributed through dedicating 10% of our revenues during COVID-19 to facilitate education, donating to hospitals and also to NGOs committed to supporting women and children living with HIV. One key issue that we are targeting in Botswana is the rate of unemployment amongst the youth. We are looking forward to working closely with the government and other relevant authorities to curb unemployment,” said Shah.
Currently, Stargems Group has employed 117 Batswana and they are looking forward to growing the numbers to 500 as the company grows. Majority of the employees will be graduates from the Stargems Diamond Training Center. This initiation has been received with open arms by the general public and stakeholders. During the launch, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Honorable Lefoko Moagi, stated that the ministry fully endorses Stargems Diamond Training and will work closely with the Group to support and grow the initiative.
“As a ministry, we see this as an game changer that is aligned with one of the United Nations’ Six Priority Sustainable Development Goals, which is to Advance Opportunity and Impact for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). What Stargems Group is launching today will have a huge impact on the creation of employment in Botswana. An economy’s productivity rises as the number of educated workers increases as its skilled workmanship increases. It is not a secret that low skills perpetuate poverty and widen the inequality gap, therefore the development of skills has the potential to contribute significantly to structural transformation and economic growth by enhancing employability and helping the country become more competitive. We are grateful to see the emergence of industry players such as Stargems Group who have strived to create such opportunities that mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 on the economy,” said the Minister of Minerals and Energy.
Business
Food import bill slightly declines
The latest figures released by Statistics Botswana this week shows that food import bill for Botswana slightly declined from around P1.1 billion in November 2022 to around P981 million in December during the same year.
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