Anglo American writes down value of diamond firm De Beers by $2.9bn

News Snapshot:

The world’s biggest diamond miner De Beers cost its parent company almost $3bn last year as the growth in lab-grown stones continues to take the shine off the industry. Anglo American was forced to write down the value of the renowned gem producer for a second consecutive year as its chief executive admitted that the diamond markets had proved “really, really difficult for the company”. Duncan Wanblad, the chief executive of the FTSE 100 miner, added that its plan to shrug off De Beers as part of a radical strategy to dismantle parts of the 108-year-old group – which coined...