The 2015 to 2018 Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) contract will not only include businesses that have gained the traditional De Beers sightholder status but also a new customer type called an accredited buyer.
As previously reported by Jeweller, De Beers announced the accredited buyer scheme in August 2014, explaining that the new approach was designed to add flexibility and increase accessibility to the company’s rough diamonds.
Accredited buyers are businesses that have successfully qualified to be GSS customers but have not qualified for a term contract and consequently sightholder status. Under the new scheme, accredited buyers will be given the opportunity to purchase rough diamonds via ‘ex plan’, the 10 per cent of rough diamonds formerly sold through De Beers’ other diamond sales business, De Beers Auction Sales.
In addition to having access to the remaining 90 per cent of rough not available to accredited buyers, sightholders will be able to acquire ex plan diamonds.
The current selling period includes 84 sightholders and two accredited buyers. The De Beers sightholders list will be updated with new company names in early May.
“The diamond industry is approaching a period of great opportunity, and businesses need to be strategically well-positioned if they are to make the most of it,” De Beers CEO Philippe Mellier commented.
Paul Rowley, De Beers’ GSS executive vice president, added, “We feel we already have a compelling product and service offering, but when this is combined with the flexibility and simplicity of the distribution approach in the new supply agreement – in which customers have the potential to increase their share of our availability by demonstrating their demand for the different types of rough we sell – sightholders and accredited buyers will be even better positioned for success in the short, medium and long term.”
In other De Beers news, the company has opened a diamond inscription and grading operation for its Forevermark brand in Surat, India.
The US$10 million (AU$13.2 m) International Institute of Diamond Grading and Inscription facility was said to be the “newest and most technologically advanced” Forevermark operation to exist, and at full capacity, would be able to process about US$500 million (AU$657.9 m) diamonds annually. De Beers has a similar operation in Antwerp.
Mellier explained that while the facility would initially focus on the grading of Forevermark diamonds, De Beers would also look at how the service could support the wider diamond community.
“[The facility is] an important investment by De Beers in world-leading technology, which will be an important resource for the Indian diamond trade and will cement Surat’s position at the heart of our industry,” he added.
Further highlighting De Beers’ interest in India was reports indicating the company was considering conducting live auctions in the country.
According to online news service livemint.com, the company was investigating the possibility of opening a rough diamond auction and sales office in Mumbai once guidelines for duty-free zones were introduced in the country.
De Beers currently runs online auctions through its Auction Sales business.
Update – Correction 16 April 2015
Since publication, a De Beers Group spokesperson has issued Jeweller with a correction notice that reads: “Please note that ex-plan is not the 10 per cent sold via De Beers Auction Sales. Auction Sales will continue to sell around 10 per cent by value of De Beers' rough diamond availability; the ex plan that Accredited Buyers will have the opportunity to apply for at Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) is drawn from the 90 per cent that is sold via the GSS channel and does not affect the amount of diamonds sold via De Beers Auction Sales.
“Ex-plan simply refers to rough diamonds sold by GSS that are not part of the 'in-plan' (i.e. diamonds sold via the planning tool known as the 'Intention To Offer' or ITO).”
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