Does De Beers’ Future Include Gareth Penny?

By Rob Bates | July 10, 2025

As the natural diamond business continues its long, slow walk to recovery, a massive question remains: What will happen to De Beers, which was put up for sale last year by majority owner Anglo American?

Market talk says the first nonbinding bids for De Beers will be submitted at the end of this month. (Anglo, which owns 85% of De Beers, declined comment.) We’ve seen several reports of possible buyers for the company, including Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, a former shareholder in Anglo American; Australian mining magnate Michael O’Keeffe, who’s currently involved with Burgundy Diamond Mines; and two Indian diamond companies, KGK Group and Kapu Gems.

But what’s attracted the most attention is reported interest from two former chief executives of De Beers: Bruce Cleaver, who served as CEO from 2016 to 2023 and now chairs Gemfields, and Gareth Penny (pictured), who headed the company from 2005 to 2010. (Contrary to trade gossip, the two are not working together.)

Penny is a particularly intriguing name since he’s been largely out of the industry for the past 15 years, after he spent the first two decades of his career in it. But he does seem interested. He was spotted at a De Beers sight in Botswana earlier this year, and visited Dubai and even the JCK show.

According to people he’s spoken to, Penny—who currently chairs Ninety One, Africa’s largest asset fund—hasn’t decided to submit a formal bid yet. But the former Rhodes Scholar has never lacked for ideas, and he’s told people he’s distressed at the current state of the diamond business. He hopes to recruit a team of veterans and newcomers to give De Beers a complete reset.

Of course, Penny’s reported choice of partners from Qatar may prove politically dicey. (Though the Qatar Investment Authority was a longtime investor in Tiffany.) Some in the industry don’t have fond memories of Supplier of Choice, the early-2000s De Beers policy that Penny spearheaded—just as some are still upset with Cleaver’s decision to launch Lightbox. In retrospect, both concepts were probably ahead of their time.

Yet having an experienced hand at De Beers (or keeping current management in place) could have its advantages. De Beers is an unusual business, operating in a variety of fields. As Philippe Mellier, who was CEO in between Penny and Cleaver, once described it: “You go from an extremely technical job—talking about mining shovel efficiency and this type of thing—down to the market and what is selling and not selling. You do not get bored for one second.”

And with the trade still recuperating from a two-year crisis, it looks like serving as De Beers CEO won’t be dull for a while. It’s not surprising that the people who want to take over the company are people who have done it before.

There’s always the possibility that despite its statements, Anglo will hold on to De Beers. Anglo recently sold off several platinum holdings—just as the platinum price recovered. It now intends to focus on copper, but tariffs have made that market a mess. Commodities are generally cyclical.

The industry largely expects the diamond market to come back; the only question is when. If Anglo suffered through the bad times, it might as well enjoy the good.

(Photo from LinkedIn)