Luanda, Sept. 4, 2025 (Lusa) - The president of the institute that manages Angolan state assets on Thursday declined to give any dates for the privatisation of Unitel, scheduled for the first half of 2025, noting that the privatisation programme runs until 2026.
Álvaro Fernão was speaking to journalists after the roadshow to present the Public Offer for Sale (OPV) of Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA), which foresees the sale of 29.75% of the bank's capital by the current shareholders - Unitel, which has 15%, and Banco Português de Investimento (BPI), with 14.75%.
"The privatisation programme has entered a phase of disposing of the most valuable and complex assets. This year we privatised three valuable and relevant factories on the market and now we are holding the ceremony for the IPO of BFA, which was the profit champion in 2024," said the head of the Institute for the Management of State Assets and Holdings (IGAPE).
"We will continue to work on the other companies, which also have their own complexities when it comes to structuring privatisation," he added, without giving any forecasts for Unitel, the state-owned mobile telecommunications services provider, to go public.
"The privatisation schedule runs from 2023 to 2026, we have until the end of next year to close the programme (...). We will continue to work with the companies to privatise them," he said.
The chairman of the telecoms operator, Aguinaldo Jaime, said that the company's expectations of this operation are very high, bearing in mind that it is a systemic bank, with excellent results, very high levels of profitability, efficiency and an absolutely acceptable risk margin.
"Investors are not going to pass up the opportunity to invest and make a return on their capital in an operation that seems to us to have been a success so far," he said, describing the IPO as "an important milestone for the capital market in Angola and its financial system".
Regarding the privatisation of Unitel, Aguinaldo Jaime limited himself to stating that "all the clarifications will be given in due course".
The last date proposed for the privatisation of the operator was for it to be listed on the stock exchange by the end of the first half of 2025, according to what Angola's Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury, Ottoniel dos Santos, stated in December last year.
The partial privatisation of Unitel is part of the Angolan government's Privatisation Programme (ProPriv), which aims to reduce the state's presence in strategic sectors and encourage private sector participation.
It involves the sale of 15% of Unitel's capital through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Angolan Debt and Securities Exchange (BODIVA), in accordance with a presidential decree dated August 23, 2024.
Unitel's privatisation process was initially announced in ProPriv 2019-2022, which included the sale of 195 state-owned companies and assets, including Unitel, the state oil company Sonangol, and the diamond company Endiama.
Until October 2022, the company was partly owned by private shareholders, including Isabel dos Santos (25% via Vidatel) and General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino" (25% via Geni), with the remaining 50% controlled by state-owned Sonangol.
Unitel became 100% state-owned, managed by IGAPE and Sonangol, when the Angolan government nationalised the holdings of Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, and General "Dino", both of whom were close to the late former head of state.
Aguinaldo Jaime also spoke about the relationship between Angolan and Portuguese banks, considering it to be "essentially positive", although with room for improvement.
"The results are essentially positive," he emphasised. "Obviously, there can always be improvements (...) this opportunity to privatise BFA is very important because it promotes the democratisation of access to capital: citizens can be shareholders, they can own a profitable bank that offers great possibilities for small savers, for companies and for institutions in general," he added.
BFA was created in 2002 from the transformation of BPI's Angolan branch into a bank under Angolan law. BPI was the majority shareholder until 2017, holding 50.1% of the share capital, while Unitel, then controlled by Isabel dos Santos, held 49.9%.
In October 2016, BPI sold 2% of BFA's capital to Unitel, reducing its stake to 48.1% and relinquishing majority control, which was subsequently held by Unitel (51.9%).
Since 2017, BPI has been 100% controlled by CaixaBank, a Spanish Bank, which acquired all the shares, including the 18.6% stake held by Isabel dos Santos.
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