The R&M “Lettre”

You may have gathered over time, if you are foolish enough to read a few of my burbles, that I am not one to resist too strongly the odd glass of wine passing my lips.

The decision by the Chinese authorities to clamp down on advertising luxury products is a red ‎flag for the diamond industry. While China represents the primary growth opportunity for the ‎trade, the government’s restrictions are presenting hurdles even if its intentions may be pure.‎

De Beers’ profits for 2012 fell 49 percent year-on-year to just $506 million. The sharp drop in profit comes on as sales fell 16 percent to $6.1 billion. Rough diamond sales decreased 15 percent to $5.5 billion.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp’s sale of its luxury brand to Swatch Group is the most ‎significant step yet taken by this rapidly evolving company. Essentially, the deal marks ‎the end of Harry Winston the mining company, as the brand returns to its luxury roots, ‎and the mining business is renamed Dominion Diamond Corporation.  ‎

Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (HW)’s $1 billion sale of a luxury unit to Swatch Group AG (UHR) provides the cash to invest more in diamond mining, a business that last year was more than twice as profitable as jewelry, Liezel Hill and Christopher Donville write in an article posted by Bloomberg News at www.businessweek.com on […]

The long and winding road from wrestling with deep losses and large debts to the highlights of profits, major acquisitions and large returns on a divestment, was as precarious as the ice road leading to Canada’s diamond mines.

“… the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the ‎eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the ‎corner, and for every snake a ladder will compensate,” Salmon Rushdie, Midnight’s ‎Children.‎

Weakness crept into the diamond market in August 2011. In the year that followed, 2012 proved to be one filled with notable changes and challenges, some of which will continue to have an impact in 2013.

The moment when a leading company decides to float on the stock market is always a moment of uncertainty. All eyes are pointed to its early results, as analysts try to figure out to correctly measure its performance.

Mike Roman, th e late former chairman of Jewelers of America (JA), once told Martin ‎Rapaport, “Don’t worry about diamonds. The industry will be okay, as long as there are ‎three things: Christmas, sex, and guilt.” The good news is that each year he has proven correct, and his premise holds true for ‎‎2013, if […]

Bain & Company said that the surprisingly strong diamond demand growth posted in 2011 and uncertainty around fourth-quarter holiday sales in 2012 introduced significant variables into the demand outlook for the year. China and India accounted for most of the diamond demand growth last year.

ALROSA, the lesser known of the two diamond mining giants, is emerging from its own ‎shadows and may exert greater influence on the industry in 2013. While it still has a ways ‎to go, it has become more transparent about disclosing its resource base, building its ‎client list and developing its marketing strategy.