According to the newspaper Expansion, in its edition this Friday (07/07), the State is negotiating with a foreign African investor the entry into the share capital of Movicel, with the capacity to “put in the money” necessary to save the company.
The operator, which lost more than 2 million customers in the last five years, has many of its equipment turned off, which implies serious problems in network coverage, in addition to having lost almost half of its workers, going from more than 1 million to around 600 thousand.
As far as Expansão found, salaries are paid late, employees complain about unjustified discounts and the loss of some benefits, such as health insurance for all.
Also on a visit that Expansão made to the main stores in Luanda, it was possible to verify that they were not busy. Store shelves that used to be full of cell phones and accessories are now practically empty. Added to this is the dilapidated appearance of the outside of the stores, which raises questions about whether they are operating, with the exception of those located in shopping centres.
An agony made worse by the state of the company's accounts, with huge debts to the State and suppliers. Many of these have already cut service provision and others are already moving towards coercive charges. A scenario that is very unattractive for investors, whether domestic or foreign. Even so, talks have been held with some interested parties, with Expansão confirming that advanced negotiations are currently taking place with an African operator, in a deal that could be closed in the coming weeks.
“If it's an economist analyzing the dossier, it's a bad deal. Now if you're an engineer, it's an excellent deal. Movicel has an asset that covers all its debts, the infrastructure. Despite not being operational, the company has a national capillarity similar to Unitel. The “lion's share” of this business exists and just needs to be reactivated. Let's look at the problems that Africell has had to grow its activity, precisely because it does not have infrastructure”, explains a source linked to negotiations with the potential investor.
Expansão also found that to put these infrastructures and equipment into operation so that they can effectively cover at least the five main consumption centers in the country – Cabinda, Luanda, Benguela, Huambo and Lubango – around USD 100 million will be needed. That would be spent on buying generators to ensure the functioning of the antennas spread across the 164 municipalities, buying some equipment that was stolen or vandalized, updating software, replacing fiber that was cut, etc.
To this value must be added the investment in places and means to relaunch the commercial activity, modernization of the administrative sector and working capital to guarantee the operation. That is, at the very least, Movicel would need USD 150 million at this stage to return to work with “normality”. And there are still debts to the State and suppliers.
“With regard to debts to the State, I can inform you that this will never be a problem to leverage Movicel. Regarding the other debts to several suppliers, we can help to renegotiate, which, by the way, we have done, since we managed to freeze several coercive executions at this stage so that the operator would not stop”, explained a source from the ministry that is directly linked to the negotiations . Incidentally, this was promised to the potential interested party.
This means that the State will be flexible and give the company time to be able to generate capital gains to pay these arrears, at the same time that it will “pressure” other suppliers to have the same patience.
