Standard Bank de Angola SA’s shareholder AAA Activos Lda said it agreed to sell its 49 percent stake in the unit of Africa’s largest lender by assets to Inpal-Investimentos e Participacoes Lda, an Angolan investment-holding company.
Standard Bank Angola and Inpal “are in the process of finalizing the deal,” AAA-Activos Chairman Carlos Manuel de Sao Vicente said in an e-mailed response to questions on Friday. AAA Activos is disinvesting from the Luanda-based company for "various reasons," he said, without giving more detail on the value of the transaction or why it’s exiting.
AAA Activos, which has interests spanning from insurance to the hotel industry, bought the 49 percent stake in Standard Bank Angola in 2012. Standard Bank Group Ltd. holds the remaining share. The sale comes as Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, struggles to cope with crude prices that have more than halved since June 2014, curbing economic growth and spurring the government to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help.
Johannesburg-based Standard Bank first sold the interest in the business to AAA Activos via a capital increase that doubled the Angolan unit’s cash on hand at the time to $100 million. It also followed a search for local investors since Standard Bank started operations in the southern African country in 2010.
It would be inappropriate for Standard Bank to comment at this stage, the lender said in an e-mail. Of the numbers listed on Luanda-based Inpal’s website, two weren’t answered, one disconnected and another was listed as a wrong number. The company also didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
--With assistance from Renee Bonorchis To contact the reporters on this story: Candido Mendes in Luanda at cmendes6@bloomberg.net, Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at halmeida5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels, Neil Callanan
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
POPULAR