On 5 August, Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) signed an agreement with a businessman for the transfer of the 100 percent stake in the bank's share capital held by BAI Micro Finanças (BMF).
According to António Mosquito, the aim will be to transform the entity into a commercial bank, as it already has all the licenses and meets the requirements to operate in Angola.
"The bank will not operate solely in microcredit, it will be a normal commercial entity," he said, stressing that he intends to create a differentiation in the Angolan banking sector, without giving further details.
Mosquito declined to divulge the amounts involved in the operation, stating only that guarantees had been activated via Caixa Angola (in which he is a shareholder, with a 12 percent stake).
The businessman, owner of the GAM group, has interests in the areas of oil, banking, agriculture and construction.
Banco BAI Micro Finanças started operating on 20 August 2004, under the name NOVOBANCO, managed under German management, specifically by the Procredit Group. It was the first bank specialising in microcredit in the country and currently has 21 branches.
In 2009, it was renamed Banco BAI Micro Finanças by notarial deed executed on October 30, 2009.
In 2018, it carried out a capital increase, with Banco BAI now holding 98.41 percent of the capital, Chevron Sustainable Development Company (CSDC) with 0.59 percent and three minority shareholders with 0.33 percent.
In 2020, it underwent a further restructuring with regard to its shareholder structure, with the minority shareholders selling their shares to the shareholder BAI.
BAI announced, in early August, the sale of its direct and indirect shareholdings in the companies, Griner Engenharia S.A (72.6 percent) and Novinvest S.A. (51 percent).
BAI's shareholders approve changes to the bylaws to go public in 2022.
BAI, a subsidiary of state oil company Sonangol, was recently approved by its shareholders as a change to its statutes that will allow it to go public in 2022.
BAI's structure is made up of 54 shareholders, none of whom holds qualified stakes, with Sonangol standing out as the main shareholder with 8.50 percent of the capital.
Other shareholders are Oberman Finance Corp (5.00 percent), Dabas Management Limited (5.00 percent), Mário Palhares (5.00 percent), Theodore Giletti (5.00 percent), Lobina Anstalt (5.00 percent), Coromasi Participações Lda. (4.75 percent), Mário Barber (3.87 percent), Luís Lélis (3.00 percent) and unidentified "Others", who share the remaining 54.88 percent of the capital.
