Anglo American Plc plans to redevelop the historic De Beers Charterhouse Street property and make the building its new London headquarters.
The company intends to modernize the Charterhouse Street property and then transfer staff there from its current premises near Buckingham Palace, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. The decision is subject to Anglo receiving planning and regulatory approvals for the project.
Anglo American, which owns 85 percent of De Beers, has also looked into relocating staff to a new building and selling the De Beers property.
A redevelopment of the De Beers premises for a new headquarters is one of the main options under consideration, a spokesman for Anglo American said.
Anglo American moved its De Beers staff out of the Charterhouse office earlier this year. The relocation was part of a wider restructuring by the diversified miner as it aimed to cash in asset sales to cut a debt burden that almost brought the company to its knees during a collapse in commodity prices in 2015.
The building on Charterhouse Street was the center of the diamond industry for much of the 20th century, with the vast majority of the gems sorted and sold from the building. It includes subterranean vaults that once held about $5 billion of rough diamonds.
Anglo American’s current headquarters at Carlton House Terrace, and its lease on the property expires in 2020.
