Gemfields, which owns brand, agrees deal with SMG Capital, controlled by Sergei Mosunov<\/b>
\nGemfields, which owns brand, agrees deal with SMG Capital, controlled by Sergei Mosunov
Faberg\u00e9, the jeweller famed for its imperial Russian Easter eggs, has been sold to a technology investor in a $50m (\u00a337m) deal.
Gemfields, which mines coloured gemstones in Africa, has agreed to sell Faberg\u00e9 to SMG Capital, a US investment company controlled by the tech backer Sergei Mosunov.
The struggling miner, which bought Faberg\u00e9 in 2013 for $142m from the private equity company Pallinghurst, put the company up for sale in December, when political unrest in Mozambique prompted it to temporarily freeze operations at its ruby mine.
Faberg\u00e9, which was founded in 1842 and taken over and transformed by Peter Carl Faberg\u00e9 in 1882, is one of the most renowned jewellers in the world but has come under pressure amid a downturn in the luxury goods market. It made revenues of $13.4m in 2024, down from $15.7m the previous year.
Sean Gilbertson, the chief executive of Gemfields, described the deal as \u201cthe end of an era\u201d.
He said: \u201cFaberg\u00e9 has played a key role in raising the profile of the coloured gemstones mined by Gemfields and we will certainly miss its marketing leverage and star power.\u201d
Mosunov, a venture capitalist and startup investor, said it was a \u201cgreat honour \u2026 to become the custodian of such an outstanding and globally recognised brand\u201d. Mosunov is a Russian national based in the UK.
\u201cFaberg\u00e9\u2019s unique heritage, with ties to Russia, England, France and the USA, opens significant opportunities for further strengthening its position in the global luxury market and expanding its international presence,\u201d he said.
Faberg\u00e9 is best known for the ornate eggs it made for the Russian royal family before the 1917 revolution. The jeweller began making Imperial Easter eggs when tsar Alexander III first commissioned them as a present for his wife, tsarina Maria Feodorovna, in 1885. There are 50 Imperial Easter eggs in collections around the world.
During the Russian revolution, the Bolsheviks seized the Faberg\u00e9 workshops and closed down production. The family fled across Europe to Germany, Finland and Switzerland.
The brand was revived under various iterations over the course of the 20th century, and was sold for $180m in 1984. Three years later it acquired the Elizabeth Arden brand for $700m. In 1989, the consumer goods group Unilever then bought Faberg\u00e9 for $1.55bn. The brand was relaunched by the Faberg\u00e9 family in 2009.
While Faberg\u00e9 is best known for its multimillion-pound Easter eggs, with a collection valued as high as \u00a352m when auctioned in 2004, it has a number of other highly valued collector ranges, as well as lines of jewellery and watches.
This spring the Castle Howard Faberg\u00e9 range was put up for auction, an array of animal models carved from stones such as topaz and nephrite.
Gemfields said it would use proceeds from the sale to help fund its mining operations in Mozambique and Zambia.
Shares in the miner, which is dual listed on London\u2019s junior stock market and Johannesburg\u2019s exchange, have fallen by about 70% from their peak in 2023, as the miner has struggled against oversupply in the emerald market. In June the company told investors that the opening of a new mine in Mozambique had been delayed because of problems around illegal mining and work permits.<\/p>\n