Tax Amnesty: Veni, Vidi, Vici
December 21, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharBelgian diamantaires revalued (upwards) their diamond inventories this week by at least $2.5 to $3 billion. They paid an additional tax of some $100 to $130 million before leaving town for the season’s holidays or for Indian weddings. This “tax amnesty” (or “one-time inventory revaluation,” which is the industry’s preferred term and is technically correct) was agreed upon... Read More...
The Future of SoC Depends on Verdict in London High Court
December 14, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharThe Supplier of Choice (SoC) Ombudsman has ruled that the DTC is in contractual breach with its long-time client Jayam N.V. As the alleged infringement applies to each and every Sightholder, a “guilty verdict” in the current lawsuit Jayam filed against the DTC may set off a flood of new lawsuits. De Beers is confident... Read More...
Looking Back At the Future
December 07, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharA phone call in the middle of the week from a friend in London urged me to reread an article that we had written some three and a half years ago, which was around the time Supplier of Choice officially started. In this particular article, many things were predicted for the diamond industry, such as the lack of liquidity in the industry, bankruptcy of a major sightholder, the lack of success... Read More...
7/11 Diamond Stores and DTC Policies
November 30, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharIt was at a press conference at a diamond congress in London where former De Beers managing director first formulated the company’s zero-tolerance policy on reputational issues. In the scoring system for Sight allocations, “reputation” is a “pass/fail” proposition – it is not subject to a... Read More...
Thanksgiving wishes
November 23, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharChaim Even-Zohar is spending Thanksgiving in Singapore, and does not want to interrupt anyone's dinner with a troubling memo. Please accept his warmest Thanksgiving wishes. Have a nice weekend. Read More...
Paying the Price for Suffering Banking Discord
November 17, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharIrrespective of whether New York-based M. Fabrikant & Sons will go Chapter 11, Chapter 7, or whether the company will end up flourishing again and rise to greater prominence with new outside investors at the helm (and we still like to bet on the last option), there is one conclusion that seems to me to be inescapable: if the... Read More...
It's The Distribution – Stupid!
November 09, 06 by Chaim Even-Zohar"The boxes of the DTC are fine; the only thing that's wrong is their distribution." That's an authentic quote from a DTC Sightholder in Mumbai. As the raison d'?tre of the DTC (and its core product) is distribution, that statement is roughly comparable to, "General Motors is a great company; the only thing that's wrong is their cars." Read More...
EXCLUSIVE: From Today Luxury Brand Retailer Montblanc Commits to Disclose Color Enhancement Treatments of its Black Diamonds
November 02, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharThis week we planned to disclose that “luxury brand Montblanc is using deceptive and unfair trade practices in the advertising of its Meisterstuck Solitaire Royal Black Diamond fountain pen featuring 4,654 black diamonds - a writing... Read More...
Justice Needs To Be Done – Without Damaging Noises or Loss of Perspective
October 26, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharA question: Which draft law counts more than 20 pages, numbers 29 articles, and contains some 116 sub-clauses? Answer: The new proposed anti-money laundering (AML) regulations for diamond merchants in Belgium. Compared to this draft... Read More...
Closing the Debate
October 20, 06 by Chaim Even-ZoharFew articles have evoked as many as reactions as our reflections on the impact of potential financial losses that might be inflicted by Sightholders-in-trouble on the banking system and on parties within the industry-at-large. Some of the writers felt that I refrained from mentioning the apparent failure of Supplier of Choice... Read More...
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