Angola biggest telecom Unitel set to be privatized, to sell 15% of its stakes

Following its 2019 policy of diversifying its economy, Angola is set to sell stakes in its biggest telecoms company, Unitel, to private investors. The Southern African country’s government also plans to open two of its lenders in the coming months to attract investors.

The Minister of Economic Coordination, Jose de Lima Massano said a part of the investment process will be done through the stock exchange.

“In the coming months, we are privatizing our telecommunications company Unitel. Part of it is being done through the stock exchange,” Massano said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

He added that Angola will dispose of stakes in Banco de Fomento Angola, its second-largest lender, and Standard Bank Group’s local unit.

Unitel once opened part of its stakes to the daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, who held a 25 per cent stake in the telecommunications company.

In October 2022, Angola seized the shares of Isabel dos Santos and the 25 per cent stake in the state-owned company held by General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, aka Dino. Then, the company had 30 million subscribers and an 80 per cent market share. 

However, on 23 August, Angola President João Lourenço approved the privatization of Unitel which authorized its return to private ownership. In the decree, the presidency said that 15 per cent of Unitel’s share capital would be put on the market. 

“It is essential to partially privatize the shares held by the state within the framework of the privatization programme (Propriv 2023-2026),” the presidency said.

The telecom operator was nationalized in 2022 as part of the anti-corruption campaign launched by João Lourenço in 2017 when he came to power. The government added that 2 per cent of the shares offered will be reserved for Unitel employees.

Unitel was established in 2001 as a joint-stock company. The company was previously owned by Oi and Helios (through Africatel), Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol, and local firms like Geni Holding (through Mercury), and Vidatel.

Similar Read: Angola telecom giant, Unitel to launch IPO in 2024

Like Unitel, here are other Angola privatization projects

The three companies set to be privatized are among the largest of almost 200 state-owned firms and assets the government initially earmarked for disposal in 2019. This was contained in its plans to raise cash and diversify the economy away from oil. Angola is Africa’s third largest oil producer behind North African Libya and Nigeria. 

More than half of the state-owned companies have been privatized since 2019. “We have decided to embark on a massive programme to privatize state-owned entities. It’s happening,” Massano said. 

Although the country has informed investors to hold on to investments in its oil companies, private holders have been wanting to invest in the state’s oil company Sonangol or its diamond firm Endiama.  “We are still working on it, the desire is still there. It’s a present. The companies require some internal work that is being done by the management so that when they come to the market, they deliver what was promised,” the minister said. 

The government added that it will retain its stakes in its Portuguese lender Banco Comercial Portugues and oil company Galp Energia SGPS. According to Massano, Angola sees no need to leave the entities that are responsible for the positive performance of their assets. 

The Southern African country currently holds 19.5 per cent of the business continuity plan (BCP) through Sonangol and an indirect stake in Galp through the Amorim Energia venture, which owns 37 per cent of the Portuguese oil firm. Both BCP and Galp have significantly increased their market value over the past year by about 88 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

Similar to Unitel’s development was Ethio Telecom’s (Ethiopian Telecommunications Company) partial privatization in October 2024. The internet and service provider became the first Ethiopian company to list on the East African country’s new stock market. 

The company, which has monopolized the country’s telecommunications industry for several years and serves about 120 million population entered the record books on stake. 

Following the bourse establishment and the privatization of the government-owned enterprise, the company made a record mark with its 10% stake trade last year.