Angolan state-held stakes in 195 companies will be sold between 2019 and 2022 under the country’s latest Privatisation Programme, including eight telecoms operators, Jornal de Angola reports. The programme published in the official state bulletin earmarks a total of 175 share sales via public tender, eleven public auctions and nine Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). This year alone the government aims to launch 80 public tenders and one IPO, followed by 81 tenders, six auctions and three IPOs in 2020.
Alongside high profile stake privatisations at companies such as oil group Sonangol, BCI-Bank of Commerce & Industry, diamond mining firm Endiama and airline TAAG, the telecoms operators included in the Privatisation Programme are: Angola Telecom (AT), MSTelcom, Net One, Unitel, TV Cabo Angola, Multitel, Angola Cables and Angola Comunicacoes e Sistemas (ACS). Shares are also up for sale in telephone directory company ELTA and postal operator ENCTA.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that a 45% stake in wholly state-owned fixed telco and mobile licensee AT is scheduled for sale by the end of this year, while broadband provider MSTelcom (registered as Mercury Telecommunications Services) is a subsidiary of Sonangol (itself up for privatisation) and in turn, fixed-wireless broadband operator Net One is a subsidiary of MSTelcom. MSTelcom is also the holder of a 25% stake in Angola’s mobile market leader Unitel. Cable/fibre operator TV Cabo Angola is 50% owned by AT, and the latter also owns a 30% stake in corporate data services provider Multitel. Up-for-sale BCI-Bank of Commerce & Industry is a fellow shareholder in Multitel with 20%. Furthermore, submarine fibre cable operator Angola Cables is 51% owned by AT, with Unitel (31%) and MSTelcom (9%) also owning stakes in the international connectivity venture. Rounding out the list, partly-state-owned ACS is a B2B broadband provider based in the capital Luanda.