HB Antwerp Reinstates Mansori
October 02, 23
(IDEX Online) - HB Antwerp today (2 October) said it had reinstated Oded Mansori as managing partner, a month after removing him over a "sharp difference in strategic vision and approaches to business".
His removal was swiftly followed by Canadian miner Lucara's withdrawal from a 10-year deal to sell its specials (+10.8-cts) through HB, citing "a material breach of financial commitments".
"We were able to move past the internal events and differences of the last several weeks and emerge better positioned to redefine the natural diamond industry and deliver greater returns for the country of origin, specifically Botswana," said Rafael Papismedov, who co-founded the company in 2020 together with Mansori and Shai de Toledo.
Mansori (pictured) responded to his removal last month by launching legal action. Today he said: "We have been able to grow from this experience and come back together stronger and more unified than ever to further promote HB as a model for meaningful change across the minerals sector."
HB Antwerp pledged to "turn the diamond world upside down" with its new and transparent approach to rough diamond sales, paying miners the estimated polished values of their stones, rather than a rough valuation and promising to achieve higher prices for them.
The collapse of the Lucara deal has cast doubt on another major deal - with the government of Botswana.
In March it announced it was buying a 24 per cent stake in the company and would supply it with diamonds from the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company for a five-year period.
That deal has yet to be signed, and Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi said last week that his government would now have to "determine the course of action we are going to take" after Lucara's withdrawal.
HB Antwerp said its entire team, with 200 employees across Antwerp and Botswana, was "united in their mission to transform the natural resource supply chain with a better, fairer system for source countries and communities".