Luanda, Sept. 4, (Lusa) - The CEO of Banco de Fomento de Angola (BFA) on Thursday highlighted the Angolan bank's good results and growth trajectory, and expressed confidence in the success of the flotation that will be launched on Friday.
Luís Gonçalves was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the presentation of the floatation, which foresees the sale of 29.75% of the bank's capital to investors, held today in Luanda.
The operation involves the sale of 4.46 million ordinary shares, placed by the current shareholders - Unitel, which provides 15%, and Banco Português de Investimento (BPI), with 14.7 %. Two lots will be available: one, dedicated exclusively to employees at 2%, with the remainder available to the general public.
"There's no certainty about the success of the operation, but we expect that there will be. From the dialogue we're having with investors, we can see that there's an appetite for this operation," said BFA's chairman, stressing that "expectations are high".
The manager declined to give concrete figures on the bank's results this year, as the accounts are not yet closed: "the only evidence we have - and it's what's recorded in our quarterly balance sheets, is that the operation continued to grow in the first half of the year" - but "only in a few weeks will we have a clearer view".
Luís Gonçalves pointed out that the balance sheets show a "better" result for the first half of the year compared to the previous year.
"But there are still six months to go until the end of the year, so it's too early to say that the results and the main indicators will remain at the same level as they were in 2024 and with an upward trend," he added.
BFA's results for 2024 include a profit of 207.8 billion kwanzas (approximately €194 million), representing a 24% increase compared to 2023, making the bank the most profitable in Angola.
As of Friday, any interested investor can visit one of the financial intermediaries participating in the IPO and place their order to buy the shares, whose indicative price ranges between 41,500 and 49,500 kwanzas (approximately €39 and €46).
'If we reach the maximum placing price, we expect to raise more than 200 billion kwanzas (around €205 million),' he said.
The offer runs from 5 to 25 September, with the final price and results expected to be set on 26 September, settlement by 29 September and admission to trading on the Angolan Debt and Securities Exchange (BODIVA) on 30 September.
This is the biggest operation ever on the Angolan stock exchange and involves the third bank to go public, after BAI and Caixa Angola, already listed on BODIVA.
Unitel is currently controlled by the Angolan state, following the asset recovery process, and BPI by Spain's CaixaBank, which in 2017 acquired an 18% stake from Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos.
RCR/ADB // ADB.
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