According to the note, the entity's clarification occurs "following news reported by some media outlets about an alleged conflict of interest and violation of the Basic Law of Financial Institutions (LBIF) resulting from the appointment of the Chairman of the Board of Directors (PCA) of the Institute of Management of Assets and State Holdings (IGAPE), Patrício Bicudo Vilar, to the position of non-executive director of Standard Bank Angola.
"As part of the asset investigation process, for indications of criminal activity, the National Asset Recovery Service of the Attorney General's Office proceeded to seize 49 percent of the shareholdings of shareholder AAA Activos, Lda. in Standard Bank Angola (SBA), and the Institute for the Management of State Assets and Holdings (IGAPE) was appointed as the trustee of that asset.
According to the statement, "as the seizure of assets in criminal proceedings confers management powers and as IGAPE is the trustee of that asset (shares representing 49 percent of the capital of SBA), this public body has the legitimacy to appoint directors, under the coordination of the Finance Ministry.
In this context, according to the note, it was recently "appointed the two non-executive directors (NEDs) that represent the State in the SBA, namely Patrício Vilar and Silvano Araújo.
"These appointments, which are a right and an obligation, aim to replace the NEDs that had been appointed by AAA Activos, in order to restore the regular functioning of the governing bodies of the SBA, in the light of regulatory precepts," said the IGAPE document.
There is, according to the note, "no legal impediment to the appointment of Patrício Vilar, on behalf of the state, as trustee, given that paragraph 3 of article 17 of the LBIF allows directors to be shareholders or not.
"Moreover, the LBIF prohibits members of the management bodies of financial institutions from cumulatively holding management positions or performing functions in other banking or non-banking financial institutions - which is not the case here, since IGAPE is not configured as a financial institution (Article 34)," the document indicated.
IGAPE said that as for the alleged conflict of interest related to the ongoing privatization of Banco Comércio e Indústria (BCI), "the institute does not replace in this process the Bank's Board of Directors and even less the Evaluation Commission."
"IGAPE does not, therefore, exercise any management function at BCI and, as such, the normative content cited in Article 34 of the LBIF does not apply to Patrício Vilar," according to the institute.
"On the other hand, the argument that the previous functions at the Capital Markets Commission (CMC) and the Angola Debt and Securities Exchange (BODIVA) give Patrício Vilar privileged information is fallacious, considering the period between the exercise of these functions and the designation that is now intended to materialize, because the financial market is a dynamic reality," assessed the institute.
According to the note, "while awaiting the conclusion of the judicial process, IGAPE, with the coordination of MINFIN, has already defined the management strategy of the social participations of which it is the trustee.
Standard Bank has called an extraordinary general meeting for March 29th that includes in the agenda the renewal of the dismissal of the two non-executive directors (Luso-Angolan businessman Carlos de São Vicente and his son, Ivo de São Vicente), with just cause, alleging "incapacity by impediment and lack of suitability".
In the case of Carlos de São Vicente, detained since last September in Luanda on suspicion of economic and financial crimes, the grounds for renewing the previous decision, taken at the extraordinary general meeting of December 28, 2020, also include physical impossibility.
The participation of Carlos de São Vicente in the Standard Bank shareholder structure, in which the businessman, through AAA Activos, held 49 percent, passed to the Institute for Management of Assets and State Participations (IGAPE) after the businessman was arrested and accused of corruption and fraud.
The dismissal of Carlos de São Vicente and his son followed an investigation involving a bank account of the businessman in Switzerland, which has since been frozen, containing about 900 million dollars.
