De Beers to leave historic HQ

De Beers will be moved out of the company’s historic headquarters in Charterhouse Street in London.

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London - Anglo American has told staff at its De Beers diamond unit that they will be moved out of the company’s historic headquarters in Charterhouse Street in London.

An internal memo was sent to staff on Friday informing them that they would be moving into the mining company’s Carlton House Terrace offices, also in London. A spokesman for Anglo confirmed the announcement.

The relocation is part of a wider restructuring by Anglo as it seeks to raise $4 billion in asset sales to cut its debt burden. The century-old company is trying to engineer a turnaround after a slump in commodity prices. It plans to sell more than half its mines and wants to exit the iron ore and coal business to focus on its best assets - diamonds, platinum and copper.

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The vast majority of the world’s diamonds were sorted and sold at 17 Charterhouse Street during De Beers’ diamond monopoly that ended around the turn of this century.

The fortress-like building, near the Hatton Garden diamond hub on the edge of London’s financial district, also comes with a helipad that’s still used by the Oppenheimer family, who sold their stake in the unit in 2012.

De Beers currently employs about 300 people in London, after moving much of its sales team to Botswana in 2013. The company will start a process to sell the Charterhouse building in the coming months, the spokesman confirmed.

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