Botswana, Angola Say They’re Bidding for De Beers

By Rob Bates | September 24, 2025

Both the president of Botswana and Angola’s state-owned diamond company Endiama say they are readying bids to buy a stake in De Beers—though they have different visions of what the company’s future structure should look like.

Botswana president Duma Boko told Bloomberg Television yesterday that his country hopes to purchase a majority stake in De Beers by the end of October. Botswana—the world’s largest diamond producer by value—currently owns 15% of De Beers. Anglo American has the other 85%, but it plans to divest that holding.

Boko said that Botswana has “communicated our firm intention, to increase our stake in De Beers to a controlling stake…. We want to have effective control of the industry.”

He said his government has lined up “potential collaborators” that would back the purchase, mentioning Oman’s sovereign wealth fund.

The day after Boko made his comments, Angola’s Endiama announced it was part of a bid for De Beers that would give Angola a “significant minority stake” in the company.

“Angola believes De Beers’ future depends on remaining a private-sector-led global company,” Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, Angola’s minister of mineral resources, oil, and gas, said in a statement. “Our bid is designed to foster a partnership in which Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola all participate meaningfully—ensuring that no single party dominates and that the company can grow as a truly international commercial entity.”

De Beers does not sell any Angolan diamonds at present, but for the past few years it has been prospecting in the country. CEO Al Cook has said he sees “huge potential” there.

Peter Meeus, head of PME Consulting, which works with African governments, including Angola’s, tells JCK, “Angola is coming up as a very large producer which may overtake Botswana as the largest producer of rough. Obviously, Angola has an interest in De Beers.

“I do not think it is wise for De Beers to become a government entity,” Meeus says. “It has to become a dynamic company led by industry experts which can attract top talent to stimulate demand for natural diamonds.”

Diamond business analyst Paul Zimnisky notes that the two countries’ visions collide on some important points.

“Angola is basically saying we want a piece of a globally diversified De Beers that is still privately run, where no one partner has a majority,” he tells JCK. “Botswana is saying we want a controlling stake that gives us effective control of not just De Beers but the entire industry.”

Zimnisky calls Botswana’s plan to close the deal by the end of October “quite aggressive, relative to previous expectations of the sales process, which still involves multiple interested parties, some of which are not government-backed.”

He notes that the possible participation of Oman’s sovereign wealth fund in financing Botswana’s bid is “interesting, as an Oman entity bought Alrosa’s stake in the Catoca [diamond mine] earlier this year, which is a partnership with the government of Angola.”