Angola’s stock exchange, the Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola (Bodiva), expects the number of listed companies will soar from 4 to 10 by 2027. It anticipates listings by major state-owned enterprises, including diamond company Endiama and oil giant Sonangol, and other large companies. Three listings are forecast for 2025.
The Government has mentioned plans to divest some or all of the ownership of 200 state-owned firms and other enterprises. It is trying to reduce the state’s domination of the economy, increase transparency, and attract foreign investment economy, according to a 2024 article on Bloomberg.
According to an article this week on Bloomberg, Angola has put on hold plans to issue dollar bonds (eurobonds). The news agency interviewed Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa on 25 April who said Angola has started informal discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about possible financing and will look at proposals from the IMF. The minister was in Washington DC, USA, where she was attending the IMF-World Bank Spring Meeting.
According to a chart on Bloomberg, average yields on Angola dollar bonds have climbed to 15% before falling to 13.5%. Bloomberg notes this is among the top levels of any government bonds. “At roughly 930 basis points, the spread on those bonds relative to US Treasuries is not far short of the 1,000 basis point-level that many investors consider distressed territory” comments Bloomberg.
Yields on the bonds due in 2048 were down to 13.05% on 28 April, Bloomberg reports, and bonds due in 2028 and 2029 also climbed in price (bond yields are calculated as the coupon payments as a percentage of the current price, so yields fall when the bond price rises).
Bloomberg reports that two months ago Angola planned to offer bonds totalling $1.5 billion during 2025. However Sousa told the agency that it is “most likely” that Angola will avoid international debt markets until its yields return to single digits. Angola is also considering loans from the World Bank and African Development Bank as an alternative to eurobonds. It owes $864m on a bond due to mature in November.
Sousa told Bloomberg that although the Government budget was based on an oil price of $70 a barrel, they have done stress tests and if prices remain around $55 “we can manage without additional help, if we go through some adjustments on the expenditure side.”
She said the Government plans to sell stakes in its ownership of the biggest telecommunications company Unitel SA, in Banco de Fomento Angola SA and Standard Bank de Angola SA, with all three to complete in 2025.
New CEO
On 31 March, Bodiva announced that Cristina Dias Lourenço, the daughter of President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, will be the African stock exchange’s new chief executive officer for four years until 2028. She has a degree in management from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, as reported on Bloomberg.
The previous CEO Walter Pacheco resigned in January and the exchange named her interim CEO in February. Dias Lourenço is the longest-serving member of the stock market’s executive board of directors.
Sonangol listing?
Oil company Sonangol is working towards an initial public offering (IPO) of up to 30% of its shares. Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s Oil Minister, said the share sale would be local and international and would be done in stages in a Bloomberg article from February. It is Angola’s largest company and a key part of the economy. It has shareholdings in Banco Comercial Portugues SA and Galp Energia, an oil company.
The IPO has been delayed until the Government stops providing fuel subsidies after it was initially planned for 2022. In an earlier interview, Pacheco said he hoped that the listing would be completed by 2027 and attract major foreign investors to the Angolan market.
In February, Sonangol revealed that operating revenue fell to $10.5bn in 2024, down from $11.4bn in 2023, after average oil prices in 2024 dropped to $80 per barrel, from $82 per barrel in 2023. Angola is the third largest oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria and Libya.
Bodiva was listing #4
Bodiva itself was the fourth listing in November 2024 after an initial public offer (IPO) of 30% of its shares. The African share offer was heavily oversubscribed, according to the bourse. This was after a presidential order of 13 March 2024.
A statement from the exchange noted (according to this report): “The completion of the public offering demonstrated investor confidence, with a demand ratio of 778.9 percent at a maximum price of AOA 13,259, reinforcing the credibility and solidity of the company and the market it manages.”
Bodiva slowed in 2024
Bodiva released its financial results for 2024 in early April. Turnover for the year was AOA 5.1bn ($5.5m), down 27% compared to 2023. Profit measured by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) was down 49% and net income was AOA 1.3bn.
The value traded was AOA 6.06trn ($6.6bn) and there were 10,328 transactions in the year.
Other listings in 2024 were:
- Insurance company ENSA – Seguros de Angola, S.A. A presidential order of 26 March 2024 authorized the sale of 30% of the shares and an IPO. This Bodiva announcement in Portuguese gives the results, with 1,833 applications and 174% oversubscription resulting in AOA 12.9bn ($14m) raised. The shares were listed on 30 October 2024.
- Oil exploration and production company ACREP had been preparing for listing since 2021. According to the February 2024 roadshow document in English, the offer was for 900,890 shares or 37.47% of the capital, including 300,000 shares owned by Banco de Poupança e Crédito offered through IPO as the bank aimed to divest its shares and focus on listing. The total listing would be 1.8m shares. ACREP would use some of the funds to step up onshore exploration and investigate a 25 MW thermal power plant based on the gas reserves of the Noz Gas Field. The shares were timetabled to be listed on 15 March.
