"There are guidelines from the State for us to quickly fit Zahara into the Privatization Program still this year, that is a fact, but before that, it will have to follow the normal course of a public tender," said the official, quoted by Novo Jornal.
The official considered that the decision to alienate the Zahara Group is the right one, and explained that the Government has privatized some of the recovered assets in order to restore the national economy.
Patrício Vilar also stated that the government wants to reprivatize quickly the recovered assets in favour of the state. Without going into details about the recovered assets that may go to tender, Patrício Vilar indicated that "it is the Executive's commitment that these assets, once in the sphere of the State, are quickly reprivatized, there is an orientation to quickly frame them in the Propriv".
In December 2020, the Attorney General, Hélder Pitta Gróz, announced that about 5.3 billion dollars had been recovered in cases related to economic-financial and property crimes, involving money and assets, including factories, supermarkets, buildings, real estate, residences, and hotels.
The responsible person underlined that "a management strategy has been designed", with the objective of "rapid reprivatization", refusing to give details about "what is going on behind the scenes" so as not to harm the negotiations.
He admitted, however, that the tender involving the Zahara group, which was owned by Manuel Vicente, and by generals Hélder Vieira Dias "Kopelipa" and Leopoldino "Dino" do Nascimento, through Cochan, will move forward this year.
The Zahara Group owns the Kero supermarket chain, which was taken over by the state about three months ago. The Kero supermarkets were in the news in January because their shelves were practically empty after their management passed to the State. Besides the Kero hypermarkets, the group also has interests in industry, services and real estate.
