Angolan national oil company Sonangol will keep its stakes in Portuguese groups, a source from the Angolan state company told Jornal de Angola.
The source told the newspaper that there had been meetings in Lisbon with officials of the Galp Energia group, during which officials restated, “the mutual decision to preserve the alliance that unites them in the shareholder structure of the Portuguese oil company.”
Sonangol representatives who travelled to the Portuguese capital also restated the decision of the Board of Directors to keep the stake n Banco Comercial Português (BCP) “at relevant levels”.
Sonangol holds an indirect stake in Galp Energia through an indirect interest in Amorim Energia, SGPS held by Power, Oil & Gas Investments BV (35% of the capital), Amorim Investimentos Energéticos SGPS (20%) and Esperaza Holding BV (45%).
Esperaza Holding BV is 60% owned by Sonangol and the remaining 40% by the entrepreneur Isabel dos Santos.
As Amorim Energia has a stake of 33.34% of Galp Energia’s capital, the Angolan state-owned company has an indirect stake of 9.0% in the Portuguese group, whose second largest shareholder is the Portuguese state-owned company Parpública – Participações Publicas, with 7.48%.
Sonangol also owns 19.49% (as at 31 December 2018) of Banco Comercial Português (BCP), known as the Millennium bcp brand.
The Angolan President revealed these plans in an interview with Radiotelevisão Portuguesa in March 2019, when he said that Sonangol would keep its shareholder status in the Galp Energia group and Banco Comercial Português.
João Lourenço also said that Sonangol had been instructed to withdraw from companies that have nothing to do with its core business, “so there is no reason why it should no longer be part of the Galp Energia group of shareholders.”
“With regard to Banco Comercial Português, I reiterate what I said during my visit to Portugal: in principle, we will stay,” Lourenço told the television station.
Source: Macauhub