Real estate magnate Lev Leviev has sold his 18% stake in Angola's Catoca diamond mine to China's Sonangol International for $400 million, Russia's "Kommersant" newspaper reports.
Leviev acquired the stake in the Angola mine in the 1990s for $20 million. Russia's state owned diamond producer Alrosa holds 32.8% of Catoca, and Alrosa CEO Fyodor Andreyev has told Russia's Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin about the sale.
The deal is scheduled to be finalized in June when Sonangol will become the first Chinese company to own part of a diamond mine.
In 2010, Catoca had $527 million revenue from rough diamonds and reported a net profit of $111 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 29, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011