According to a report in Macauhub, Angola’s state diamond company Endiama will soon be privatised. There are also plans to partially float the shares of the Company on the stock exchange.

This was reportedly announced by the Minister of Natural Resources and Oil in Lisbon.

“Diamantino Azevedo told Portuguese news agency Lusa that a process of reorganising the activities of the Ministry and state-owned companies is underway, with the creation of a mineral resources agency that will act as regulator and concessionaire, and the current one, Endiama, will no longer take on these roles and a portion of its capital will be sold on the stock exchange,” Macauhub stated.

The minister is said to have drawn a parallel between the strategy formulated for the mining sector, and the one adopted for the oil sector – in the oil segment, Sonangol is selling its non-strategic assets and will have a minority share of its capital floated on the stock market in 2020.

“The idea is the same, and the strategy for its implementation is now being drawn up,” Macauhub quoted the Minister as saying. He is reported to have added, “the future Natural Resources Agency will benefit from all the experience and assets of the state-owned company that deals with precious metal and mineral resources.”  

Earlier, in late June, Macauhub had reported that the Angolan National Solid Mineral Resources Agency “will play the role of concessionaire of the sector, which is currently carried out by public companies” on the basis of what Secretary of State for Geology and Mines had said earlier in Luanda. In that report it was estimated that agency would start functioning in 2020.