London—De Beers reports that its newly retooled rough diamond sales and distribution arm Diamdel experienced strong demand in the latter half of 2010, with a nearly equal amount of goods going to traditional customers and sightholders alike.
 
For the second half of 2010 as a whole, De Beers reports that Diamdel offered 532 lots at auction, 98 percent of which were sold at their first time of presentation. A total of 238 companies bid at Diamdel auctions, with 134 different companies winning goods. During the fourth quarter specifically, Diamdel made 289 lots available, with 217 companies participating and 89 different outfits winning lots.
 
“In Q4 we again witnessed a very strong level of demand, with the highest levels of repeat participation from our customers of the year, breaching the previous highs we witnessed in Q3,” said Diamdel Chief Executive Officer Neil Ventura. “This, combined with other indicators, makes us bullish on demand prospects for Q1 2011 as we enter the first sales cycle of this year.”
 
The second half of 2010 represented the first time sightholders, which were previously excluded from the auction process, participated in Diamdel auctions. The initial announcement about sightholder participation caused concern among some existing Diamdel customers that worried that they would be consistently outbid at auction by sightholders.

 Sightholders began bidding in Diamdel auctions in October. According to De Beers, since then the lots have been split about equally between both groups, with non-sightholders edging out sightholders during the last sale of the year, the November/December auction. Non-sightholders won 57 percent of the total value at this auction.
 
“Sightholders participated alongside non-sightholders during the last two sales cycles of 2010 and have shared the supply opportunity equally so far, winning an equal amount of lots and purchasing a nearly equal amount in U.S. dollar value terms,” said Diamdel Director of Sales and Marketing Jonathan Whitney.
 
In addition to divulging Diamdel results, De Beers announced on Tuesday that Diamdel Israel opened new offices on the 11th floor of the Yahalom Building in Ramat Gan. More than 300 guests, including senior officials from the Israeli diamond industry, attended an opening reception on Jan. 16.
 
Ventura said after greatly reducing its presence in the Tel Aviv market following the global economic crisis, Diamdel is refocusing attention on Israel. Whitney adds that the company has seen an increase in the number of registrations, participants and winning buyers from the Israeli market at its auctions in 2010.