The information was transmitted by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Management of State Assets and Participations (IGAPE), Patrício Vilar, stating that the process of evaluating applications "starts in the next few days".
BCI, a publicly owned bank, will be privatized via the Angola Debt and Stock Exchange (Bodiva), a process considered by the official as "pilot and innovative" in Angola as it is the first experience on the stock exchange.
"And, therefore, it has its technicalities, we are complying, after this preliminary qualification phase, then we will move on to the phase of selection of candidates who will go to the auction, the expectation is that the auction will take place in a single day between September and October ", said.
According to Patrício Vilar, also deputy coordinator of the technical group of the Privatization Program (Propriv), the process of restructuring BCI for its subsequent privatization on the stock exchange "is already concluded".
IGAPE has already received applications from national and foreign entities.
"The restructuring process for its privatization is now complete, in fact, in the published accounts, it was recently realized that we were within the parameters required by the BNA [National Bank of Angola], therefore it is concluded", he assured.
Regarding the number of candidacies, the official noted that the privatization of BCI has the specificity of being on the stock exchange and, therefore, he stressed, "we are facing a multilateral market where participants have the right to anonymity."
As it is a multilateral market, he stressed, he can only say that "the 18 confidentiality agreements signed in the previous phase received six effective candidacies".
In his speech at the end of the Propriv National Interministerial Commission meeting, he guaranteed that the process includes "several lines and mechanisms of defense" against possible fraud, including that of candidates "proving the origin of their funds".
"This is the virtue of appealing on a stock exchange, because it is not possible to make an appeal on a stock exchange if candidates do not have money in their accounts, and for candidates to have money in their accounts, it is necessary to prove the origin of the funds," Vilar replied to journalists.
In addition to the "pre-qualification" process, he considered that, with "this type of instrument, this risk is greatly mitigated and, in relation to BCI, this evaluation phase has not yet taken place, applications have been received" and now it will "begin to to assess".
"And then there is another line of defense here, which is the BNA, because according to the financial rules, the process will only be concluded with the validation of the suitability of the winners by the BNA, so this whole process goes through several scrutiny", guaranteed Patrício Vilar.
The official also stated that the privatization process of Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) and Banco Caixa Geral Angola (BCGA) should take place between the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022.
He added that the process of collecting candidacies for the privatization of Net One, a telecommunications company, is already underway, followed by Multitel and TV Cabo, which will be privatized by public offer on the stock exchange.
"And the same applies to the company in the fuel distribution sector, Sonangalp. We are finalizing the pieces so that we can start the process for placing Sonangalp on the stock exchange," added the president of IGAPE.
The Interministerial Commission of Propriv maintains the goal of privatizing 100 assets and/or public companies this year, noting, however, that privatizations on the stock exchange may be extended until 2022.
The Propriv program foresees the privatization of more than 190 companies and/or Angolan State assets by 2022 in the sectors of banking, hotels and tourism, finance, insurance, agriculture, telecommunications, industries, oil, among others.
