Angola decided to dispose of up to 30 percent of the capital of the national oil company through an international public offering during the year 2022, having already started preparatory work for the process.
Sonangol's administrator, Baltazar Miguel, indicated that the oil company has made some estimates of the company's valuation internally that point to an interval between US $ 21.8 billion and US $ 27 billion, which taking into account the sale of 30 per The estimated cent would be equivalent to a value of between 6.5 and 8.1 billion dollars.
Baltazar Miguel said that the preparatory work for this process has already started, having consulted Ernst & Young for that purpose, and the first meeting took place on 18 February.
The session also took stock of Sonangol's performance in 2020, including the implementation of the Privatization Program.
According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Gaspar Martins, nine assets were traded and three processes were concluded, with a total proceeds of approximately US $ 48 million.
The cases were related to three real estate assets in Portugal: a building on Avenida da República, in Lisbon, the former Brancanes Convent, in Setúbal, and Quinta do Lazareto, in Almada.
Participatory interests in 34 companies are still in the process of divestment.
Gaspar Martins reaffirmed the intention to divest in non-nuclear areas, despite the fact that the route is not linear in order to "circumvent the difficulties".
"Sonangol has not lost, from a strategic point of view, the intention to dispose of non-nuclear business, which does not mean that, in order to dispose of this non-nuclear business, it does not have to go through some path that many times even implies entering initially , but he did not lose that objective of alienation ", he underlined.
The official said that this is what is happening at Banco Económico level - where Sonangol increased its stake, after taking the 30.98 percent stake in Lektron Capital, former Sonagol president Manuel Vicente and general Kopelipa - and the telecommunications activity - related to Unitel, a company founded by Isabel dos Santos that Sonangol started to control last year.
"We have to make the assets attractive to anyone who wants to buy and that is what we do too", highlighted Gaspar Martins.
In addition to a relevant shareholding in Unitel, Sonangol has banking positions, including Angolans BAI, BCI, Banco Económico, Caixa Angola and BFA (via Unitel) and the Portuguese Millenium BCP.
On the recapitalization of Banco Económico (former Banco Espírito Santo Angola), Baltazar Miguel indicated that Sonangol has been working with the National Bank of Angola (BNA) and the Ministry of Finance, as well as the main shareholders, to come up with a proposal and a "concertation" meeting is scheduled for next week.
"It is a major concern given the ongoing work with the International Monetary Fund," he admitted.
Sonangol regained control of Banco Económico in August 2019. The previous shareholder structure consisted of Lektron Capital (30.98 percent), Geni Novas Tecnologias (19.9 percent), Sonangol EP (16 percent), Sonangol Vida SA (16 percent), Novo Banco SA (9.72 percent) and Sonangol Holding Lda (7.4 percent).
Geni and Lektron Capital benefited from state financing, through Sonangol, for the acquisition of shareholdings in Banco Económico, according to a survey carried out by the National Asset Recovery Service of the Attorney General's Office (PGR).
Subsequently, Banco Económico was obliged to increase its capital to comply with the regulator's requirements.
The central bank concluded after an asset quality assessment exercise, which focused on 13 banks operating in Angola, which represented 92.8 percent of total assets, that the banking system is "globally robust", but pointed out needs for recapitalization to the Savings and Credit Bank (BPC) and Banco Económico (BE).
