MUMBAI, MARCH 7: As part of its ongoing consolidation drive, De Beers and Centenary, the Anglo-Saxon diamond combine, will dispose of its holdings in Amplats and Amcoal to Anglo American Corporation (AAC). Both Amplats and Amocol are the gold marketing subsidiaries of AAC.In turn, De Beers and Centenary will acquire from AAC and Anglo American Investment Trust (Anamint) their interests in various diamond trading companies. In consideration, Anamint would receive new De Beers/Centenary linked units and De Beers' present holding of 10 per cent in Anamint would be passed on to AAC.In May 1997, the De Beers group disposed of 8,118,391 shares of its holding in JCI Ltd to the African Mining Group, a consortium led by Capital Alliance holdings Ltd, at a price of rand 54,50 per share. In addition, an agreement has been reached in principal with JCI for De Beers to exchange its interest in Lonrho Plc for inter alia a portion of JCI's holdings in Joel and Western Areas. It is anticipated that the De Beers groupwill incur a loss on the disposal of its interest in Lonrho and consistent treatment adopted in 1996 because of their unusual size and nature.In November 1997, it had announced that AAC had decided to promote the formation of an independent gold operating group by merging certain gold operating companies with Vaal Reefs Exploration and Mining Company Ltd (Vaal Reefs) to be renamed as Anglogold.Meanwhile, falling demand for diamonds across the globe during calender 1997 saw the total net earnings of De Beers Consolidated Mines (De Beers) and De Beers Centenary AG (Centenary) drop nine per cent from their 1996 levels. However, the combined dividends were maintained at previous year's levels. In US dollar terms, the total net earnings were down to $1,229 million from $1,344 million in 1996.
