Angola set to make billions by selling seized Standard Bank shares

Standard Bank Group, its Cape Town office pictured here, owns 51% of its Angolan subsidiary, but now has the option to increase the stake.

Angola plans to raise as much as 208.5 billion kwanza (R3.6 billion) from the sale of a 34% stake in Standard Bank Angola previously held by a jailed former insurance tycoon.

The Angolan government seized a 49% stake in Standard Bank Angola from Carlos Sao Vicente in 2020. He was later convicted of crimes including embezzlement and tax fraud, and is currently serving a nine-year prison term.

South Africa-based Standard Bank Group, which owns 51% of the unit, has the right to buy an additional 24% stake, with the remaining 10% to be sold to the public via the Bodiva stock exchange from 11 September through 25 September, the Agency for the Management of State Assets and Holdings, or Igape, said in a statement.

The shares are being offered to Africa’s biggest lender by assets at 41 220 kwanza apiece and to the public at between 41 220 kwanza and 50000 kwanza. Trading is expected to begin on 30 September.

Angola also plans to sell stakes in nine other assets before next year’s elections. Igape chairperson Álvaro Fernão said in July that the Standard Bank disposal would be followed by the sale of the state’s 1.4% holding in Banco Caixa Geral Angola.

The sales would complete Angola’s 2019-’26 privatisation program, a cornerstone of President João Lourenço’s reform agenda aimed at modernising the economy and attracting private investment.

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