Shares in Angola’s leading telecom firm Unitel listed for trading on the BODIVA stock exchange today 29 July, after the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Angola raised AOA 300 billion ($328 million). See below for link to the video. All 50m shares in Unitel are listed, adding about $2.14bn in market capitalization.

Unitel has more than 21m customers and 76% market share. It announced yesterday (28 July) it had detected a major cyberattack at 2:20am which disrupted voice, mobile data and internet nationwide and it was moving to contain it, for example see African Markets. The disruption continued for more than 24 hours, according to this Novo Jornal report (in Portguese).

Unitel is the first non-financial company listed on the Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola (Angolan Debt and Securities Exchange).

The Government was selling 15% of its shares, a total of 7.5m shares at AOA 40,040 each, which was at the top of the indicative price range approved by the regulator Comissão do Mercado de Capitais (CMC). The IPO was open from 6 to 24 July and there were 11,000 subscribers who bid AOA 362bn, a 21% oversubscription, according to news reports. During the offer, 18,571 offers were submitted and state-asset management institute, IGAPE, accepted 17,549 of them.

State took over Unitel in 2022

Unitel became a state-owned enterprise in 2022 after the Government seized two 25% stakes held through Vidatel, linked to Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former President ⁠Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who departed in 2017 after 38 years as President, and Geni, linked to former army general Leopoldino “Dino” Nascimento. According to this report in Billionaires.Africa, the legal situation around the nationalization has not been fully resolved. Dos Santos, formerly described as Africa’s richest woman, is challenging the decisions and denies any wrongdoing.

It operates in Angola, Sao Tome and Principe and Cape Verde. It also owns 51.9% of Banco de Fomento Angola, which completed its IPO in 2025.

Privatization programme accelerates

The share sale and listing is part of the PROPRIV privatization programme which President João Lourenço launched by decree in 2019. In February it was narrowed to 10 strategic companies according to this report on Ecofin. The Unitel offer was a key test of local and international appetite for shares in Angolan privatizations.

According to this story on Bloomberg, Angola is accelerating the programme ahead of elections scheduled for 2027. It plans to sell stakes in 10 companies ranging from mining to telecommunications by the end of 2026. Alvaro Fernao, chairman of IGAPE, said it would include diamond producer Endiama EP, airline Taag-Linhas Aereas De Angola SA and fixed-line operator Angola Telecom.

It will use public tenders for some sales but the stock exchange is the preferred option. Bloomberg quotes Fernao: “If all of our companies were ready, the stock exchange would undoubtedly be the best option… A listing broadens ownership among thousands of shareholders and raises governance standards because companies become more accountable to investors.”

According to the Bloomberg report “The sales would complete Angola’s 2019-2026 privatization programme, a cornerstone of President João Lourenço’s economic reform agenda aimed at modernizing the economy and attracting private investment. The program targeted the divestment of 130 state-owned assets. So far, 120 have been sold, generating contracted proceeds of about 1.28 trillion kwanzas ($1.4 billion), though about 17% of those payments remain outstanding, Fernao said.”

Current listings on BODIVA (see our previous story with more detail) are:

• Banco Angolano de Investimento the first equity IPO which raised AOA 40bn ($94m) before listing in June 2022 (as we reported on ACMN).
• Banco Caixa Geral Angola: Listed in September 2022.
• ENSA Seguros: State insurer listed in October 2024 after raising $14m
• BODIVA SGMR S.A.: The exchange operator listed on its own board in November 2024 after a heavily oversubscribed offer
• Banco de Fomento Angola: raised AOA 221bn ($241m) and joined in September 2025 under Angola’s privatization rollout after its shareholders, Unitel and Banco BPI, sold 4,462,500 shares (see our story on the 5x oversubscription) in the biggest African IPO of 2025.

The video of the 29 June listing can be seen here on YouTube, but you are advised to scroll forward through 1hr 18min of jazz before the action starts. Captions: Ringing the bell. Bodiva CEO Cristina Dias Lourenço, the daughter of the President, speaking at the ceremony. Both screen grabs from BODIVA video on YouTube.