Financial

Visitors to Hong Kong from Mainland China for the Golden Week vacation do not appear to have been deterred from visiting as a result of the political protests in the former British colony.

In a meeting held between the management of Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot led by Eldad Fresher, CEO, and CTO, Ophir Morad, and leaders of the Israeli diamond industry headed by Israel Diamond Exchange President, Shmuel Schnitzer, President of the Israel Diamond manufacturers Association, Kobi Korn and IDI Chairman Moti Ganz, Fresher announced that an expansion of credit to the Israeli diamond industry.

For more than a century the diamond business has been predicated on the fact that the vast majority of merchandise sold never reenters the market. A person’s diamond jewellery, with its powerful emotional baggage, is hardly ever sold off, but rather passed on to the children or other loved ones.

Dominion Diamond Corp, previously known as Harry Winston Diamond Corp, has finalized the purchase of the holding of BHP Billiton Canada Inc. and its various units in the Ekati diamond mine, in addition to diamond sorting and sales facilities in Yellowknife, Canada, and Antwerp.

At the Ekati mine, there is a Core Zone, including the mine and other permitted kimberlite pipes, and the Buffer Zone, an area next to it with kimberlite pipes that have development and exploration potential.

Dominion Diamond Corp, formerly Harry Winston Diamond Corp, has the financial ability to buy Rio Tinto's majority stake in the Diavik diamond mine in northern Canada if the price is right, said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Gannicott .

Rio Tinto may pull out of the diamond business, while Dominion already owns 40 percent of Diavik, in Canada's Northwest Territories.

G4S International Logistics has paid its clients who incurred losses as a result of the Brussels Airport robbery on February 18. The security firm said it paid in full within four days of the theft.

It is believed US$50 million of diamonds were stolen by eight armed men who drove through the airport fence in two vehicles and stole parcels of diamonds that were about to be loaded onto a flight to Zurich.