Business news for Thu, 29 Nov 2007 & with words africa+south. 6 news.

The British mobile giant continues to target emerging market assets, but its bid for a larger stake in South African Vodacom has been tabled

Making a parallel with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after peace talks in Washington that failure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians could threaten Israel's long-term survival

A profound sense of disconnection is the key to understanding South Africa's enigmatic and controversial president, as a long-awaited biography makes clear AS THE African National Congress (ANC) prepares later this month to elect the man who will lead it for the next five years, there is more interest than ever in Thabo Mbeki. Barred from running in 2009 for a third term as South Africa's president, Mr Mbeki, who is also the current head of the ANC, is one of the front-runners for re-election to the top party job. However, after 13 years in power--first as Nelson Mandela's deputy before succeeding him in 1999--the president has come to be respected or loathed, but hardly ever loved. Even among his closest followers, Mr Mbeki remains an enigma. Some consider him to be a cool-headed and visionary moderniser, others a scheming centraliser who will not tolerate dissent. ...

De Beers sells one of its most famous mines RICHARD BURTON probably knew nothing of the small South African town of Cullinan when he bought yet another chunky diamond for Elizabeth Taylor in 1969. But the rock, still known as the Taylor Burton, was found there, together with a quarter of the world's diamonds over 400 carats. The Cullinan mine has also produced what is still the largest rough gem in the world--the whopping 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond--parts of which adorn England's Crown Jewels. Now the mine itself, like so many of the diamonds unearthed there, is about to change hands. On November 22nd De Beers, the diamond giant that has owned the mine since 1930, said it was selling it to a consortium led by Petra Diamonds, one of South Africa's emerging diamond producers, for 1 billion rand ($147m) in cash. Provided regulators approve the deal, the transfer should take place by the middle of next year. De Beers is selling because the mine is no longer profitable, despite attempts to turn it around. But Petra reckons the mine still has another 20 years of production in it and plans to extract at least 1m carats a year. The unexploited "Centenary Cut" deposit, which lies under the existing mine, could yield a lot more. This is good news for the mine's 1,000 or so employees and for the town, which has depended on the diamond business since Sir Thomas Cullinan discovered a prospect there in 1898 that contained kimberlite, a rock that can be rich in diamonds. The mine, established in 1903, is one of 30 or so kimberlite diamond mines in the world, and is believed to be still the world's second-most-valuable diamond resource. ...

Telkom South Africa abandoned talks to sell its mobile and fixed-line phone assets to the Vodafone Group and the MTN Group, ending the possibility of South Africa’s biggest takeover. Vodafone, which owns 50 percent of Vodacom Group, South Africa’s largest cellphone company, was in talks to buy the other half from Telkom. The MTN Group was negotiating to buy Telkom’s fixed-line business.

Vodafone’s ambitions to expand in Africa suffered a major setback after the collapse of break-up talks between Telkom, its South African joint venture partner, and the continent’s largest mobile phone network, MTN.