Advisers are quietly confident that DB Investments' bid for De Beers will succeed now that one of the biggest independent De Beers shareholders, Brandes, has accepted the offer, and it has cleared regulatory hurdles.

Brandes, the US investment advisory firm which holds about 6.1% of De Beers, the South African mining company, said on Wednesday it would accept the offer. One person working on the deal said: &quotWe are not taking anything for granted, but Brandes making everything clear has given a great degree of confidence in the market that the deal will get support.&quot The South African Competition Tribunal has also cleared the acquisition.