Since ancient times, jewelled collars, saddles and bridles have ensured that animal companions were as finely jewelled as their owners. Animal bling seems to have been particularly popular from the mid-19th century. Vogue’s 1896 article “Swagger Dogs” told its readers that “Dog jewelry forms an interesting exhibit, is marvelously fine and valuable, if absurdly extravagant”. These dogs sported jewelled collars, leg bracelets and bangles galore.
Lord Berners, the model for Nancy Mitford’s Lord Merlin in The Pursuit of Love, was well known for decorating his pet dalmatians with diamond necklaces, while the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning made a collar for her dog Flush from a mosaic bead necklace. When Frances Work (Mrs Aurel Batonyi), the great-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales, visited the casino with her dog, she matched her jewels with its own diamond collar. The Daily Express of 1903 even recommended “diamond studded dog-collars with receptacles for scent” for smartly dressed dogs. According to early 20th-century newspapers, some dogs even wore bracelets around their paws and gem-set earrings. One of the gifts given to Jenny and Rosie Dolly, the fabulously glamorous cabaret dancers of the 1930s, was a pair of tortoises. These came from the besotted retail magnate Harry Selfridge, their shells set by Cartier with 4-carat blue diamonds.
The Dolly Sisters in the 1920s
The modern dog with a generous budget could choose from the famously expensive Amour Amour collars, the top-of-the-range set with 52 carats of diamonds, to elegant options from Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Christian Louboutin (with signature red lining). Sadly cats haven’t attracted the same attention from jewellers, although they might not have the same patience for dressing up as their dog counterparts.
The size M Loubicollar dog collar from Christian Louboutin
Animal lives are shorter than human ones and bereaved owners often wanted a record of their animal companions, often through paintings and photographs but also via memorial jewellery set with their images and sometimes even hair.
The brooch with a portrait of Nero made for Jane Carlyle
Jane Carlyle’s little dog Nero was a great comfort to her through the ups and downs of her marriage to the author Thomas Carlyle. Nero, painted as “large as a sheep” to Jane’s dismay, can be seen lying comfortably on the sofa in Robert Tait’s painting of the Carlyles at home. When Nero died in February 1860, Jane turned to the painter to help her create a memorial. Writing to Tait, she asked him to send her a photograph of the detail of Nero from the painting to make into a brooch.
Queen Victoria’s collie Gipsy, painted by Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl
Jane Carlyle wasn’t the only bereaved owner to want a lasting memory of her pet. Queen Victoria extended her appetite for sentimental jewellery to her animals. As well as a photograph album recording all the dogs in the Windsor kennels, one of her favourite dogs was immortalised in a jewel. In 1863 the Prince of Wales ordered a crystal brooch with the image of the Queen’s recently deceased collie Gipsy from the royal jewellers, Garrards. Some years later, as Edward VII, he kept strands of his favourite terrier Jack’s hair in a locket on his desk.
Amour Amour is the world’s most expensive dog collar with the price tag of $3.2 million
And although in general cats have not been lucky enough to be gifted jewels during their seven lifetimes, they have also been turned into a glittery accessory.
Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, was well known for her passion for Siamese cats. According to Boudoir Magazine in 1904, she wore a locket holding the portrait of Goblin, her favourite cat. Goblin’s thoughts on the matter are not recorded.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued new licenses under the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations, allowing for the sale of diamond jewellery and loose gem-quality diamonds imported before recent sanctions were implemented. This significant policy shift permits goods that were previously prohibited to re-enter the market.
Under the new guidelines, diamond jewellery purchased before March 1, 2024, as well as loose diamonds of 1 carat or larger bought before that date, and those of at least 0.50 carats purchased before September 1, 2024, can now be sold. The relaxation for loose diamonds will remain in effect until September 1, 2025.
However, starting September 1, 2024, the next phase of G7 diamond sanctions will impose restrictions on all goods of 0.50 carats or above from Russia, regardless of where they are cut and polished. This phase of sanctions is set to take effect next Sunday, despite substantial opposition from various industry stakeholders.
In response, the Jewelers Vigilance Committee has reported that the United States is considering supporting a delay in the implementation of these sanctions. This potential delay, which aligns with the European Union’s proposed extension to March 1, 2025, aims to provide additional time to resolve the intricacies of the sanctions and their impact on the diamond trade.
A wealthy US doctor splashed out $275,000 on 5 ct emerald cut diamond for his fiancace.
He plans to have the D colour, flawless gem set in an engagement ring, according to California based Varsha Diamonds, which made the sale through retail partner Phillips Jewelry, in Tennessee.
“We’ll be setting it in the mounting of their choice,” said business owner Robbi Philips. “They are thrilled, and so are we. I feel honored to have found them a remarkable diamond that they will be proud of and will cherish forever.”
Varsha says its Fireworks brand diamonds are cut for beauty rather than size and the symmetrical step cuts achieve maximum white light brilliance.
“Fireworks Diamonds are scientifically proven by AGS’s Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool (ASET) and Sarine light performance technologies to be the largest and brightest diamonds in the world, and all because of the way they are cut,” said Jay Mehta, director of business operations at Varsha.
The value of rough diamonds mined globally during 2023 fell by just over 20 per cent, down from $16bn in 2022 to $12.7bn according to the latest Kimberley Process (KP) figures.
The volume of diamonds mined fell by 7.6 per cent to 111.5m carats, and average per carat prices slipped almost 14 per cent from $132.27 to $114.10.
Production in Russia fell by 11 per cent, from 42m carats in 2022 to 37.3m carats, although average price carat actually increased by 14 per cent from $84.77 to $96.64. Exports were down 5 per cent to $3.68bn.
Botswana’s production volume increased slightly to 25.1m carats in 2023 but plunged 30 per cent by value, from $4.7bn in 2022 to $3.3bn.
The global diamond industry peaked in 2017, according to historical KP data, when production hit 150m carats, a 16 per cent leap from 126m carats the previous year.
It held firm at 149m carats in 2018, then slipped to 138m carats in 2019; 107m carats in 2020 (down 22 per cent) and 119m carats in 2021.
Michael Moszynski, founder and chief executive of LONDON Advertising and an experienced investor, was introduced to Mr Dominguez by a fellow investor in a separate business.
He explained Mr Dominguez’s reputation – being an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, tipped by Forbes magazine, with the backing of high-profile investors – made Vashi an attractive proposition.
The senior management team also included figures with strong track records in retail, which gave him confidence. Audited accounts suggested it had healthy assets and revenue.
“I went to see their store and they were just about to open this amazing shop in Covent Garden. It all looked really strong,” Mr Moszynski said.
“The quality of the investors was reassuring and everyone thought everyone else had done their due diligence. Some of the investors who lost their money were top names in British entrepreneurship.”
A Middle East investor, who has a background in the retail business and spoke anonymously, told The National he was attracted by Vashi’s approach which “had a lot of merit to it”.
He was impressed by the “brazenness” of stores in high-profile locations in central London.
“I was invited to the opening of the Covent Garden one and they walked us around, and it was busy and buzzing,” he said.
He put together a consortium, which included friends, family and his employers, spread across the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, to invest in Vashi.
The consensus was that if investment went wrong “at least we had the diamonds”, he said. “That was the insurance policy.”
He feels “taken in” by Vashi’s story.
“I’m involved in many companies that haven’t made it. They fail, but they fail on their merits,” said one frustrated investor from the Middle East, who wished to remain anonymous. “This feels different.”
Mr Moszynski said the fact the company was raising capital on the back of its diamonds, confirmed by auditors, convinced him to invest.
“That was a major, major reason why investors put in money. They felt even if the business wasn’t successful, the liquidation of the assets would offset the investment,” he said.
“But we investors discovered that there was no stock when we heard that the liquidators had opened the safe and it was bare.”
Vashi’s vision Mr Dominguez was born to a Spanish mother and Indian father on the island of Tenerife.
His insurance broker parents sent their only child to a private school and he went on to study law.
He dropped out, becoming a salesman at an electronics store and in the process finding his passion for business.
Mr Dominguez opened his own shop in 1998, then set himself up as a wholesale supplier of electronics to the Canary Islands, travelling to Hong Kong to deal directly with manufacturers.
Tiring of electronics, he decided to turn a childhood fascination with diamonds into a moneymaking venture.
Meteoric rise It’s a difficult business to break into, but after 100 meetings over nine months he managed to find a gems supplier in Mumbai and he was on his way.
After first selling them wholesale in his native Spain, he decided it would be more beneficial to market them online directly to customers.
Mr Dominguez moved his business to London in 2007, setting up its headquarters in the Hatton Garden diamond district. His company Diamond Manufacturers Ltd rebranded to begin trading in his own name, Vashi, and in 2009 his website was up and running.
He opened his first bricks and mortar store in the upmarket Mayfair district of the UK capital.
This led to media coverage and the regular slot on This Morning giving tips about buying precious gems.
Buoyed by his initial success and enhanced profile, he set out his vision for conquering the jewellery world, aimed at luring millennial and Gen Z customers to “iconic destination stores”, stocked with ethically-sourced diamonds.
He expanded to three more stores, with the flagship a dazzling 4,476-square-foot presence in Covent Garden. Each of them dovetailed with a bespoke online service.
Rather than intimidating destinations only for the super-rich, these would be “friendly and accessible”, with in-house workshops visible from the street that would tailor-make jewellery to embrace “the fundamental emotions of the wearer”.
Material for investors showed young photogenic customers, smiling as they engage in the diamond ring-buying “experience”.
John Ames joined Vashi as chief technology officer in July 2021 and his first impressions of Mr Dominguez were positive.
“He was a big man – imposing and tall. He was impressive,” Mr Ames told The National.
“He turned up to the meeting with a £60,000 gold watch on his wrist and he spoke eloquently about his vision.”
Meanwhile, Mr Dominguez was a finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, while Forbes magazine predicted Vashi would be among the UK’s next “unicorns” – a privately owned start-up company valued at over $1 billion.
The company recorded apparently dramatic increases in sales. A trading update issued in May 2021 stated that sales were up 385 per cent from the year before, when the UK was in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Dominguez laid out plans for expansion into the US, saying the $300 billion jewellery industry was “ready to be disrupted”.
“Within five years, we expect to join one of the world’s biggest luxury conglomerates, and we will begin our global roll-out thereafter,” the company boasted.
A 2021 pitch seeking £75 million from investors set out a bold plan to use the capital to fit out New York stores and also to buy £50 million worth of stock.
The New York stores were to be on Fifth Avenue and in SoHo, where its premises were to be opposite Tiffany & Co and adjacent to Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Apple.
Vashi’s chief financial officer, Charles Leach, emailed potential investors to say the company was valued at £250 million with fixed assets in the form of loose polished diamonds and metal worth up to £200 million.
The unravelling Mr Ames, the chief technology officer, suspected all was not right when suppliers began seeking overdue payments.
By December 2021, he had reason to believe that the company was raising investment on the basis of sales figures he felt did not match reality.
Mr Ames was given an internal sales report, which showed the figures were around £5.4 million for 2020 and £5.09 million for 2021.
That contrasts with the last available public accounts filed with Companies House, which show that the company’s stated sales for the year ending 2020 were £53.63 million and 2021 £105.42 million.
The company made a pre-tax profit of £14.1 million in 2021, according to the filing for that year, up from £4.9 million the year before.
The accounts were signed off by Inger & Co, which operates out of a small office among shops in the East London suburb of Redbridge.
Mr Ames says when he challenged a fellow senior manager about the discrepancy, he was told the rest of the sales were made up of Mr Dominguez’s private sales to celebrities and other wealthy clients.
However, a presentation to investors states that revenue were split 62 per cent online and 38 per cent in stores. There was no mention of private sales.
It just “didn’t make any sense”, said Mr Ames.
From his conversations with Vashi employees involved in the purchase of precious metals and diamonds, Mr Ames understood those suppliers continued to chase the company for unpaid bills and were unwilling to allow the business to purchase on credit.
Other conversations, including with employees who worked in the stores, where diamonds were kept in safes, revealed that the necessary stock was not being bought.
He said he was “uncomfortable” with what was taking place.
Mr Ames began to raise concerns about a lack of internal governance and internal reporting but in January 2022 he was dismissed.
Former chief financial officer Mr Leach had by this stage put his own money into the company.
He told The National: “As an investor myself who lost a substantial sum, I relied like other investors on audited accounts, audited stock certificates and independent professional stock valuations.
“I was retained by the company as an external consultant, preparing investor forecasts from management accounts provided by the accountant, and communicating their vision to their investors.
“I never saw a bank statement or any internal sales or customer information. The business appeared to be a great British success story with an inspiring leader, and I put my heart into helping them tell their story.
“The sudden liquidation and the picture that emerged following it were a huge shock.”
Creditors, including diamond suppliers, had gradually lost patience, and court records show they were petitioning to have the company wound up from May 2022.
A former employee revealed on the Glassdoor employment website, which reviews companies, that staff were made to pretend to be customers in November 2022.
Other employees wrote on Glassdoor of unpaid salaries, pension contributions taken out of wages but not paid into pension funds, and having to lie to customers about their orders.
Meanwhile, furious customers complained about the shambolic service, with one saying Vashi had taken more than a year to replace a faulty ring.
The company was finally wound up in April 2023 after the Canary Wharf shopping centre, the landlords of one of its premises, and 19 other creditors, obtained a court order.
The liquidators say there are claims totalling £162 million from creditors, while staff are owed £2.5 million and the tax authorities £4.6 million.
Reflecting on his time at the company, Mr Ames said: “I hated the fact I was deceived. It made me very angry that other people were being recruited into it and deceived as well.
“They were young and very talented and they all believed in the concept and wanted to deliver on it.”
The person most able to answer questions about the company is of course Vashi Dominguez himself.
Efforts to contact him to seek a response to the allegations made have so far been unsuccessful. It is understood investors have also been trying to track him down.
At his last registered residential address in central London, a woman who answered the door when The National visited denied knowing who he was.
Mr Moszynski said he has now made a complaint to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office with a detailed dossier of evidence.
The SFO told The National its policy was to “neither confirm nor deny” whether it was looking at a case until it was officially announced but said criteria for investigating included “cases that involve millions of pounds”.
US Capitol building at sunset, Washington DC, USA.
US jewelers have warned Congress of the harm that new sanctions on Russian diamonds will cause for the entire retail sector.
The trade association Jewelers of America (JA) met with with a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate to voice concerns over the 1 September restrictions that will require all goods of 0.50-scts and above to enter G7 countries via Antwerp for verification.
They say a single import channel will “cause maximum damage to the global diamond and jewelry supply chain, while having minimal effect on Russia’s diamond revenues”.
JA is urging all its members to lobby Congress and explain that the way the restrictions are being implemented will hurt jewelry businesses.
“JA has been working tirelessly behind the scenes and this visit to Washington, D.C. was a critical step to ensure we minimize unnecessary disruptions to the U.S. diamond industry,” said JA president & CEO David J. Bonaparte.
He and fellow JA representatives also called for a “grandfathering” clause to cover goods imported before 1 March (when the 1.0-cts and above restriction was imposed) and for clearer guidance on whether the current size limit applied only to individual, loose diamonds or to the total weight of all diamonds in finished jewelry.
Earlier this week, Priyanka Chopra attended Bulglari’s 140th anniversary event in Rome. And as a global brand ambassador, of course, she was totally decked out in diamonds.
Alongside celebrity supporters like Anne Hathaway, Chopra wore a dazzling piece from the brand’s “Aeterna High Jewelry” collection. With seven massive stones affixed to a unique, wavy choker, Chopra’s necklace was a hero piece for sure. But what made the design so special is that it’s one of the most precious (and expensive) designs the brand has ever created — at a cool 43 million dollars.
Priyanka’s Dazzling Diamonds According to Bulgari, the lavish necklace took “over 2,800 hours to complete.” Made up of 140 carats worth of diamonds, the necklace — dubbed the Serpenti Aertena — retails for a whopping 43 million dollars. The statement choker featured pear-shaped drop diamonds, the largest sitting front and center.
The intricate design was specially designed for the occasion, with its carat count symbolizing the brand’s 140 year anniversary. The entire collection is so ornate, it was unveiled at a museum — it truly doesn’t get much more iconic than that.
Paying the diamonds their due, Chopra went for a fairly simple off-the-shoulder gown by designer Del Core. A fitting choice for the fancy occasion, her custom look featured a cape-inspired detail and a peplum waist. The sweetheart neckline lent itself nicely to the accessory du jour.
A diamond held by dop is polished on rotating automatic cast iron lap
Prices showed signs of stabilizing during April, with an even mix of increases and decreases in many sizes, especially fancy cuts. Overall there were more clusters of price rises than we have seen of late.
It’s too early to positively identify a clear upward trend, but the “end of the lab grown boom” is arguably having an impact. Lab grown prices are now so low – in some case just 10 per cent of natural – that many jewelers are opting not to stock them in inventory and are only buying them on consignment.
In addition the G7 sanctions, in place since 1 March, are now starting to bite, and to slowly push up prices.
They have effectively restored the De Beers monopoly, although its rough production is down by almost a quarter so far this year (as is Rio Tinto’s) and rough sales remain sluggish (down 18 per cent on last year). Meanwhile polished exports from India fell by 27 per cent during March to $1.2bn
Diamond is one of the hardest materials on Earth, as its super-strong carbon lattice structure makes it incredibly resistant to compression.
Theoretical predictions suggest there is another structural form of carbon out there that could surpass diamond in hardness – the problem is, nobody has ever been able to make it.
Now, simulations performed using the fastest exascale supercomputer in the world are helping researchers better understand the stability of diamond at very high pressures. These simulations are also helping create new potential synthesis methods that could one day see this “super-diamond” become a reality. The research is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Is BC8 diamond 2.0? The basis for this hypothetical “super-diamond” is the eight-atom body-centered cubic (BC8) crystal structure. BC8 is a tetragonally bonded structure that packs atoms even more efficiently than the face-centered cubic (FCC) structure of traditional diamond. BC8 phases for both silicon and germanium have been synthesized at high pressures – and successfully recovered to ambient conditions – but the same is not true for carbon.
“The BC8 phase of carbon at ambient conditions would be a new super-hard material that would likely be tougher than diamond,” said senior study author Ivan Oleynik, a physics professor at the University of South Florida (USF).
“The BC8 structure maintains this perfect tetrahedral nearest-neighbor shape, but without the cleavage planes found in the diamond structure,” explained Jon Eggert, study co-author and chief scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) High Energy Density Science (HEDS) Center. Eggert agrees with Oleynik that “the BC8 phase of carbon at ambient conditions would likely be much tougher than diamond.”
Theoretical predictions indicate that a BC8 phase of carbon is possible – and that it would be around 30% more resistant to compression than diamond – but so far scientists have been unable to produce it in a lab.
One step closer to lab-grown super-diamond For this new study, the team was able to carry out multi-million atomic molecular dynamics simulations on Frontier, the fastest exascale supercomputer in the world. These simulations were designed to investigate the extreme metastability of diamond at very high pressures, in conditions that well-exceeded its known range of thermodynamic stability.
This new research was possible thanks to the recent development of very accurate machine learning models for interatomic potentials. These simulations can describe interactions between individual atoms with unprecedented accuracy, even when considering very high-pressure and high-temperature systems.
“By efficiently implementing this potential on GPU-based (graphics processing unit) Frontier, we can now accurately simulate the time evolution of billions of carbon atoms under extreme conditions at experimental time and length scales,” Oleynik said. “We predicted that the post-diamond BC8 phase would be experimentally accessible only within a narrow high-pressure, high-temperature region of the carbon phase diagram.”
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The simulation showed that, at pressures above 10 million atmospheres and temperatures above 4000 Kelvin, the BC8 carbon phase is the most stable form of carbon.
The significance of this is two-fold, the researchers explain. Firstly, this explains the previous failed attempts to synthesize the elusive BC8 phase of carbon seeing as it is only stable under a very narrow range of temperatures and pressures. But it also allows for further predictions of viable compression pathways that might make BC8 synthesis achievable.
Based on their simulations, the research team has proposed a double-shock compression pathway for BC8 synthesis, which is currently being explored in further experiments at the LLNL’s National Ignition Facility. Their ultimate goal is to be able to synthesize a small amount of this BC8 “super-diamond” and then find a way to recover a seed crystal of the material back to ambient conditions.
Super-diamond could already be hiding in distant exoplanets Investigating the properties of “super-diamond” is important, not just because scientists love it when there is a mystery to solve.
Astrophysical observations have discovered a number of carbon-rich exoplanets beyond our solar system. The ultra-high pressures in the interior of these planets may be enough to form diamond as well as the BC8 phase of carbon, the researchers believe.
“Consequently, the extreme conditions prevailing within these carbon-rich exoplanets may give rise to structural forms of carbon such as diamond and BC8,” Oleynik said. “Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the properties of the BC8 carbon phase becomes critical for the development of accurate interior models of these exoplanets.”
Reference: Nguyen-Cong K, Willman JT, Gonzalez JM, et al. Extreme metastability of diamond and its transformation to the BC8 post-diamond phase of carbon. J Phys Chem Lett. 2024
Prices of round, lower-clarity diamonds have performed better this year than their higher-clarity counterparts, as is clear from this graph showing the trend for 1-carat, D to H polished goods. Stones with SI clarity in those categories rose 5% for the period from January 1 to March 12, compared with a 2.2% increase for VS. VVSs slipped 0.4%, while prices of internally flawless (IF) goods fell 3.1%. The figures from RapNet reflect asking prices. Prices of fancies were down for the same period due to high inventories.
This is a correction from the situation in 2023, when prices of round, 1-carat, D to H, SI stones slumped 33% for the full year as consumers shifted from flawed naturals to eye-clean synthetics. The category has regained only some of that ground. Still, the improvement during those nearly two-and-a-half months has been considerable. Why has this happened, and why have higher clarities performed less strongly?
1. What goes down (faster) must come up (faster).
Having lost a third of their value in 2023, SI diamonds had more potential for a base effect going into 2024. By contrast, prices of round, 1-carat, D to H, VS diamonds fell 23% last year, with VVS and IF for the same range both falling 20%.
2. Lab-grown
The improvement in SIs reflects reduced pressure from lab-grown. Competition from synthetics is still there, but the impact appears to be easing. This is partly because price declines for lab-grown at retail have made them feel like less of a luxury product to consumers and damaged their appeal among jewelers. Retailers have the power to guide consumers toward whichever product gives them the most profit.
Last year, the damage to the lower-clarity segment in natural came largely from the fact that consumers could buy a lab-grown diamond with a higher color and clarity for the same or less money. SIs can have visible flaws if you pick the wrong one.
“The customers who wanted natural VS2 plus were never going to buy lab-grown,” said Ari Jain, chief financial officer at New York-based wholesaler House of Diamonds.
3. Impact of price decline and stabilization
Connected to the first two reasons is the fact that severe declines in prices of natural SIs in 2023 have made the category more affordable and therefore more popular for consumers. Jewelers, however, have a different consideration: The price stabilization for natural stones in the past few months has encouraged those who were investing in lab-grown to return to the mined product.
“Prices have come down over the course of 2023 to a place that made natural more attractive,” said Andrew Rickard, vice president of operations at Rochester-based wholesaler RDI Diamonds. “As they’re reverting back to natural, SIs still becomes the economic place to enter.”
4. High-end brands not buying
Many top luxury brands are not buying diamonds at the moment, several market sources observed. This inevitably affects the IF to VVS categories, the preferred clarities for these high-end houses.
The reason could be the state of consumer demand, especially in China, where purchasers lean toward higher clarities than in the US. One of the more compelling explanations is that high-end houses stocked up in 2023 because of concerns that a Group of Seven (G7) ban on Russian diamonds would raise prices of non-Russian production. They later realized that finding the right diamonds with confirmed origin was easier than they expected and are in no rush to add to their inventories.
The US has sanctioned Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa for corruption in connection with gold and diamond smuggling, as well as human-rights abuses.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused Mnangagwa of “providing a protective shield” to gold- and diamond-smuggling networks that operate in Zimbabwe, it said last week. He is also accused of directing Zimbabwean officials to “facilitate the sale of gold and diamonds in illicit markets” and taking “bribes in exchange for his services.”
The US has also restricted Mnangagwa for being a leader or official of entity, including any government entity, that has “engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human-rights abuses,” OFAC explained.
“The Zimbabwe president is a foreign person who is a current or former government official, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery,” OFAC stated.
OFAC issued the new sanctions after US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that terminated Zimbabwe’s national emergency and revoked sanctions on the entire country, so as not to target its citizens.
“The US remains deeply concerned about democratic backsliding, human-rights abuses, and government corruption in Zimbabwe,” said Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the treasury. “The changes we are making today are intended to make clear what has always been true: Our sanctions are not intended to target the people of Zimbabwe. Today we are refocusing our sanctions on clear and specific targets.”
Sales slumped at Indian diamond manufacturer Asian Star in the final three months of the year amid a weak market and an oversupply in the midstream.
Revenue on a consolidated basis — which includes subsidiaries in the US, Dubai and Hong Kong — fell 13% year on year to INR 6.98 billion ($84.1 million) in the company’s third fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, it reported last week. Sales slid 24% compared to the previous quarter. Net profit grew 37% to INR 182.5 million ($2.2 million).
Those figures reflected weak demand for diamonds in the US and Chinese markets, which discouraged jewelers from restocking. In China, gold jewelry was more popular throughout the period than those set with diamonds, according to Hong Kong jewelry retailers Chow Tai Fook and Luk Fook.
Revenue from the company’s diamond segment dropped 17% to INR 5.7 billion ($68.7 million), while sales of gold jewelry increased 9% to INR 1.74 billion ($20.9 million).
India will lead demand for natural diamonds in 2024, says David Kellie, CEO of Natural Diamond Council (NDC), as US buyers increasingly switch to lab grown.
“The Indian market remains the strongest growth market in the world because of its strong financial position and changing demographics,” he told The Economic Times, in India.
“Indian women are now financially stronger, and they are driving the demand. The key economic indicators in the US are not yet favourable for a demand recovery in diamond purchase.”
Kellie (pictured) predicts a polarization between the natural and lab grown markets, with a price difference currently at 80 per cent to 90 per cent.
Natural diamonds will become increasingly rare, he said, with no new mines in prospect, and with miners digging deeper, and spending more, to reach remaining deposits.
US polished-diamond imports dropped 21% to $1.5 billion in October, recording a fifth consecutive year-on-year decline, according to recent data from the US Commerce Department. The decrease reflected a fall in the volume of imports as well as a lower average price. Polished imports have not seen a year-on-year rise since May, when the timing of the JCK Las Vegas show prompted an 18% increase.
Source: US Commerce Department data; Rapaport archives.
About the data: The US, the world’s largest diamond retail market, is a net importer of polished. As such, net polished imports — representing polished imports minus polished exports — will usually be a positive number. Net rough imports — calculated as rough imports minus rough exports — will also generally be in surplus. The nation has no operational diamond mines but has a manufacturing sector, so it normally ships more rough in than out. The net diamond account is total rough and polished imports minus total exports. It is the US’s diamond trade balance, and shows the added value the nation creates by importing — and ultimately consuming — diamonds.
Signet Jewelers’ sales fell in its third fiscal quarter as the US economy weakened and engagement-ring demand underwent an expected downswing.
Revenue decreased 12% year on year to $1.39 billion for the three months that ended October 28, the retailer reported Tuesday. Same-store sales those at branches open for at least a year were also down 12%, while net profit slid 69% to $11.7 million.
“These declines were driven by the impact of heightened inflationary pressure on consumers’ discretionary spending and the decline in the bridal category, driven by lower engagements,” the jeweler said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sales dropped at all of the company’s store chains, the largest of which are Kay Jewelers, Zales and Jared. Overall bridal revenue slumped 15% to $664.6 million, while sales of fashion jewelry dipped 12% to $448.2 million. Signet’s services division including jewelry rental and repairs offset the declines with a 5% increase for a total of $169.9 million.
The results were in line with Signet’s expectations: The company had forecast sales of $1.36 billion to $1.41 billion for the period and projected that engagement-ring sales would only start recovering in the fourth fiscal quarter, which began October 29. A lull in dating during Covid-19 manifested as a drop in proposals this year, management had explained in the past.
The jeweler barely changed its sales outlook for the full year, predicting revenue of $7.07 billion to $7.27 billion down only slightly from an earlier projection of $7.1 billion to $7.3 billion.
Bridal demand rallied in November as anticipated. Still, sales in the fourth fiscal quarter, which includes most of the holiday shopping season, will likely range from $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion, the company said a decline of up to 10% from last year’s $2.67 billion.
“Trends through Black Friday weekend, including sequential improvement in engagement trends, are performing in line with guidance expectations for the fourth quarter,” said Signet CEO Virginia Drosos. “As we enter the holiday season, jewelry remains a top-of-mind gifting category for consumers in a value-conscious shopping environment.”
Total sales for the jeweler’s first three fiscal quarters fell 10% year on year to $4.67 billion. Net profit for the nine-month period, which ended October 28, rose 85% to $184.2 million because of charges in the previous year relating to litigation and a pension settlement.
Hong Kong retail sales rose in October as tourism to the municipality continued to improve and the government implemented initiatives to stimulate the economy.
Revenue from jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts climbed 27% year on year to HKD 5.1 billion ($653.1 million) for the month, according to data the government’s Census and Statistics Department released Thursday. Retail sales across all product categories increased 6% to HKD 33.77 billion ($4.32 billion).
The growth also reflected a favorable comparison with the same period last year, when the municipality was still operating under strict Covid-19 restrictions, leading to extremely low tourism. Hong Kong derives a large portion of its luxury revenue from tourists — primarily from China — who come to purchase goods. The border between Hong Kong and the mainland reopened at the beginning of the year.
For the first 10 months, proceeds from jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts surged 55% to HKD 50 billion ($6.4 billion). Total retail sales for the period grew 17% to HKD 336.06 billion ($43.03 billion).
In October, 3.5 million visitors arrived in Hong Kong, compared to 80,524 during the same month of 2022. Of those, 2.7 million were from the mainland, versus 47,607 the year before.
“The value of total retail sales increased further in October over a year earlier alongside the continued revival of inbound tourism,” a government spokesperson said. “Further recovery of visitor arrivals should benefit the retail sector. Continued improvement in household income and various activities that bolster the economy, including the ‘Night Vibes Hong Kong’ [events], should also provide support. Yet factors such as tight financial conditions and economic uncertainties could weigh on consumption sentiment.”
