Africa-Press – Angola. The Angolan government has announced that it is expected to raise around 220 billion kwanzas (210 million euros) from the privatization of three companies owned by China International Found (CIF) Angola, following the auction of these manufacturing units.
The CIF Automobile Assembly Unit, the CIF CEMENT Cement Factory and the CIF Lowenda Beer Factory are the units belonging to CIF Angola that were privatized via electronic auction, in a process that ended on Tuesday and was conducted by the Angolan Institute for the Management of State Assets and Participations (IGAPE).
The aforementioned assets were recovered by the Angolan State as part of the anti-corruption process, at a time when a trial is underway in the Angolan Supreme Court (TS) in which CIF Angola is one of the defendants, along with Angolan generals Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa” and Leopoldino do Nascimento “Dino”.
IGAPE, in a statement consulted by Lusa, states that the CIF Automobile Assembly Unit was auctioned on Tuesday in a bid that reached 10.3 billion kwanzas (9.8 million euros), with the only bidder being the business group OPAIA, SA.
For the CIF CEMENT Cement Plant, the bid value reached 180 billion kwanzas (171 million euros). In this competition, the Griner/Ciment/Mercons consortium was the first classified, the second classified was the H&S/Yupeng consortium, the third classified was Moçambique Dugongo Cimentos, SA and the fourth was Huaxin Cement Co., Ltd.
At least 29.1 billion kwanzas (27.7 million euros) was the highest bid reached in the auction of the CIF Lowenda Brewery. Rushan Shuguang Cerveja Ltd was the first classified in the competition, followed by Unique Beverages.
According to IGAPE, the aforementioned tenders follow their legal procedures, and the preliminary hearing, final auction report, notification of the decision to award the contract to the winning bidder, provision of security, acceptance of the draft contract and the conclusion of the contract comprise the subsequent stages.
The Angolan Supreme Court suspended again on Tuesday the trial session of generals Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa” and Leopoldino do Nascimento “Dino”, due to the absence of a representative of the defendant CIF Angola.
The trial, in which lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos, Yiu Haiming, and the companies CIF, Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited are also defendants, was resumed after an interruption of almost a month, but the judge of the collective, Anabela Valente, chose to suspend the sessions again due to doubts about the current majority shareholder of CIF Angola.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office agreed with the defense’s arguments that it would be “more prudent and wise” to request more information from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the trustee of the assets, and from IGAPE, responsible for the disposals of the CIF group, given the fact that the shareholdings had been handed over to the State.
The trial, which began on March 10th this year, is in its 6th session, still in the preliminary issues discussion phase. The next session is scheduled for May 13th.
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