The government of Angola approved the sale of 80% of Angola’s second largest telecommunications group Movicel to several companies in one of Angola’s biggest post-war privatisations.
The price paid and location of the purchasing firms was not disclosed in Thursday’s government statement which was approved at a cabinet meeting late on Wednesday. The statement said Porturil-Investments will buy 40% of Movicel, Modus Comicare-Comunicacoes e Imagem Lda will hold 19%, and I pang-industria de Papel e Derivados will own 10%. Lambda-Investment, another private company, will buy 6% while Novatel S.A. will hold 5%. State-owned firms Angola Telecom and Correios Telegrafos de Angola will retain the remaining 20%.
Angola’s biggest mobile operator is Unitel with more than five million subscribers. Unitel’s shareholders include Portugal Telecom and Sonangol SA, the state-owned oil company, each with 25%. With a population of 16.5 million, Angola is recovering from an almost three-decade long civil war that ended in 2002. Angola now rivals Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer. Read the rest of this entry »
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China’s largest refiner, and CNOOC Ltd. agreed to buy a 20% stake in Angola’s offshore deepwater Block 32 for $1.3 billion from Marathon Oil Corp. Marathon Oil, the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, will keep a 10% interest in the block, site of 12 announced petroleum discoveries, after the sale, which is expected to close by year- end, the companies said today in separate statements.
