Luanda – The secretary of State for Finance and Treasury, Ottoniel dos Santos, on Tuesday in the Province of Luanda informed that 12.28 billion kwanzas is the total amount which is missing for the total sale of state-owned companies and shares under the Privatisation Programme (PROPRIV).
Speaking to the press at the end of the 2nd Meeting of the PROPRIV National Interministerial Commission, he highlighted that the debt of the investors represents 2% of the total value comprising 23 contracts, out of 155 signed.
Ottoniel dos Santos recalled that in the first phase of PROPRIV's implementation, in 2019, 103 assets were privatised, for a contracted value of 1.03 billion kwanzas, while in the programme's extension period, in 2023, around 11 assets were privatised.
He added that from the said transactions, 601 billion kwanzas were already paid in terms of capital and assets, while 425 billion kwanzas remain to be received under the contracts signed.
The official said that during the period for the implementation of the programme, fines of around 250 million kwanzas have been passed, due to the delay of instalments made by different tenderers who competed and won the asset tenders.
The secretary of State said that minimum performance criteria will be defined so that certain assets can have the expected level of results according to PROPRIV.
With regard to the projects and processes underway, he pointed out that the assets of the Cabinda mill, Cesal Ceramics, Cabinda Cold Complex, Chambondo Warehouses, Poupa Lá (six units) and Mecametal are being finalised.
He recalled that other assets will be privatised in the coming months, such as the AAA chain of hotels, real estate and industries linked to CIF, in addition to Angola Stock Exchange and Derivatives (BODIVA) and Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) bank, which are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Regarding the telecommunications company Unitel, he said that there is already a mechanism in place to start the privatisation strategy for this company.
Approved in 2019 by Presidential Decree 250/19 of 5 August, PROPRIV aims to reduce state intervention in the economy and promote business development, stimulating competition, competitiveness and efficiency in the national economy.
Initially planned to run from 2019-2022, with a total of 195 public assets to be privatised, PROPRIV was extended to 2023-2026 by Presidential Decree 78/23 of 28 March.
The extension of the deadline is justified by the need to complete the restructuring processes, which include the national reference companies, the emergence of new assets to be privatised through the asset recovery process and the need for a more efficient privatisation process.
As a result of this process, it is expected that 73 assets will be privatised over the defined period.
The oil company Sonangol, the Airlines (TAAG) and the diamond company Endiama are among the other companies on the list of companies to be privatised.
The process of disposing of the respective assets is carried out through a system of public tenders, stock exchange auctions and initial public offerings.
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