According to the director of communication and image, Dionísio Rocha, "the information that Sonangol is preparing to fire employees is totally false", although there may be cases of early retirement, by mutual agreement.
However, he did not reveal whether there have already been requests for early retirement.
Dionísio Rocha confirmed Sonangol's availability to acquire the 25 percent stake of the Brazilian operator Oi in Angolan Unitel, which had been advanced by Expresso.
"We're considering the possibility of staying with PT Ventures [a company controlled by Oi], but everything depends on the decision of the Paris court," said the communications director, indicating that the estimated value of the acquisition "should be that of the market".
The Paris Commercial Court condemned Unitel's shareholders to pay Oi more than 321 million kwanzas (666 million dollars) for breaches of the shareholder agreement and proved that "transactions for their own benefit" were carried out.
Unitel's shareholders are Oi (PT Ventures), MSTelecom (Sonangol), Vidatel (Isabel dos Santos) and Geni (of General Dino), all with 25 per cent stakes.
Asked how the acquisition would be financed, Dionísio Rocha said only that "Sonangol is financing itself in international banking", without giving further clarification.
He also refrained from commenting on whether Sonangol had filed or intended to file any legal action against Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, who recently saw her bank accounts and holdings in nine Angolan companies, including Unitel, subject to preventive seizure.
The businesswoman, her husband, Sindika Dokolo, and the Portuguese manager, Mário Leite da Silva, were targeted in a decision of the Luanda Provincial Court, dated 23 December, which ordered the seizure at the request of the National Asset Recovery Service.
According to a statement issued by the Attorney General's Office on 30 December, the three entered into deals that damaged the State by more than one billion euros, through Sodiam, a diamond sales company, and Sonangol.
The oil company has an ongoing regeneration programme, presented on 15 November 2018, which will cost 21.450 million kwanzas (44 million dollars) and will be implemented in three years, with the aim of making the state group more profitable and competitive.
Sonangol also plans to sell a number of assets that it owns in the finance, telecommunications, real estate and industrial sectors, among others.
Under the Privatization Program (ProPriv), which lists 195 public companies to be privatized by 2022, Sonangol is expected to divest about 70 assets, at least 50 of which are under the direct control of the oil company's administration.
