[2019-03-12] Privatisations in Angola mainly attract national investors

Source: Macauhub

Only one in 10 potential buyers interested in the batch of seven industrial units in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone (EEZ) is foreign, said the president of the Institute of Management of Assets and State Participations (IGAPE).

Valter Barros told Angolan newspaper Expansão that IGAPE has been receiving expressions of interest from investors in the seven factories that will be divested in the first phase of the privatisation process.

“We have had visits to our website and some potential investors have visited the EEZ to see the state of each of the industrial units,” said Barros.

The president of IGAPE said that 11% of the expressions of interest were from Portuguese companies and 89% from Angolan companies, some of them owned by foreign businesspeople, without giving figures.

Barros acknowledged that these industrial units were built in a totally different economic and exchange context from the current one, “therefore the evaluations that have been and are being made may not correspond to the value of the initial investment.”

He nevertheless stressed the idea that privatisation is advantageous, as even if they are in operation they do not generate enough revenue to cover operational costs.

The privatisation of the first batch of the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone includes seven factories, one of which is in operation with 17 workers and the rest are inactive and their equipment has never been tested.