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Cartier owner Richemont is in talks about joining a bid to buy De Beers.
The Swiss luxury giant, which also owns Van Cleef & Arpels and and Piaget, and US jewellery giant Signet are looking at teaming up with the consortium in pole position to aquire the diamond business.
De Beers is most famous for coining the iconic ‘A Diamond is Forever’ advertising slogan in 1947 and building the world’s dominant diamond cartel.
Its owner, London-listed mining giant Anglo American, has been looking to sell it for a few years amid a slump in demand for its gems as consumers increasingly favour lab-grown versions.
Anglo American, which owns an 85 per cent stake in the group, is hoping to get rid of De Beers as the price of its precious stones flounders and instead focus on copper production.
It slashed the value of its diamond division and cut its forecast for production levels earlier this year.
The other 15 per cent of De Beers is owned by the Government of the Republic of Botswana.
The Global Diamond Consortium looking to buy the group is led by former De Beers chief executive Gareth Penny, who ran the company from March 2006 to July 2010.
De Beers - whose precious stones have been worn by popstar Taylor Swift - could be bought by a powerhouse of jewellery giants, it has been reported.
The consortium also includes the governments of Angola, Botswana and Namibia. These nations would own 49 per cent while the private companies would own the rest.
De Beers halted production at South Africa’s largest diamond mine in July, following a ‘protracted’ fall in the price of its products.
The company, which is owned by London-listed Anglo American, has paused operations at its Venetia mine for two years to cut costs.
Hannah Alley, luxury brand and marketing consultant and former Selfridges marketing and brand partnerships manager, said affordability was the main driver when consumers were looking at buying pricey gems.
She said: 'I think that’s really key because there is sometimes a tendency to explain this as an ethical or generational values story when, actually, a lot of it comes down to consumers looking at two very different prices and asking themselves what they personally value enough to pay for.'