20 non-viable state companies to be sold or closed this year

Of the 109 companies in which the Mozambican state holds shares, 64 are not viable and will be sold off or liquidated; 20 of them by December, and 20 next year, Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane said on 5 September. He wasspeaking at a meeting of the Consultative Council of the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (Instituto de Gestao das Participacoes do Estado, IGEPE). Most were abandoned when their original owners fled shortly after independence, 40 years ago, and were kept running by the state.

Maleiane said that the state business sector consists of 13 public companies, 2 state companies, and 109 companies in which the state holds shares. He said that 20 companies regarded as “strategic and viable” are being analyzed in order to restructure them financially, identify strategic partners, diversity and expand their products and services, consolidate their operations and rationalize costs. Restructuring measures have already been adopted for six of them: the telecommunications company TDM, the mobile phone company M-Cel, the Mozambican Post Office, the Airports Company (ADM), Mozambique Airlines (LAM), and STEMA, the company that runs the grain terminal in the port of Matola. “The restructuring under way will catalyze the development of the national economy through public-private partnerships, which will make viable state participation in major development projects”. These companies must be “capable of competing with other companies on the market”. (AIM En & Pt 5 Sep)