The Angolan President removed Chinese shareholders from the Catoca mine, the largest in the country, nationalizing the stakes held by LL Internacional Holding BV in Sociedade Mineira de Catoca, announced the Presidency
According to the note, published on the official Facebook page, João Lourenço justifies the decision by saying that LL Internacional Holding BV is “at this moment, a company subject to strong restrictive measures in the country and abroad, which led to the seizure of its shareholding by the National Asset Recovery Service and the establishment of sanctions by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The presidential decree states that “the maintenance of LL Internacional Holding BV in the corporate structure, with the current judicial and reputational problems, calls into question the strategy of Sociedade Mineira de Catoca Lda, since it makes it impossible to access vital functions for the development of current and future mining projects”.
Through this diploma, quotas are transferred to the State, regardless of any formalities, free of any encumbrances or charges, “being enforceable against third parties after registration”.
The participation of Leviev International – LLI (China), which held 18% of the mining company, was blocked in 2021 and its control transferred to the State Institute of Asset Management and Participation (IGAPE), at the request of the Attorney General’s Office Republic of Angola.
With this change, Angola, which already held the majority shareholder control through Endiama (a state-owned diamond company), now holds 59% of Catoca’s shares, with the remaining 41% held by the Russian giant Alrosa.
According to the Financial Times, LLI is linked to China Sonangol, which told the newspaper that it currently has no relationship with Sam Pa, a Chinese businessman close to the former president of Sonangol and former vice president of Angola, Manuel Vicente, appointed as an intermediary. in numerous deals for the sale of Angolan oil, through the China International Fund.
Sam Pa was arrested in early October 2015 in a hotel in the Chinese capital, with no other information about his whereabouts since that date.
In 2020, the PGR of Angola seized the CIF Luanda One and CIF Luanda Two buildings, located in the Angolan capital, as well as more than a thousand unfinished properties, buildings, shipyards and land, in the Vida Pacífica urbanization (Zango Zero) and in Kilamba, in the scope of the Law on Coercive Repatriation and Extended Loss of Assets and the Law Regulating Searches, Searches and Seizures.
The properties were owned by the companies China International Fund – CIF, Limited (CIF Hong Kong) and China International Fund Angola – CIF, Limitada.
CIF Limited is a Chinese private company headquartered in Hong Kong with an office in Beijing, founded in 2003 to finance national reconstruction projects and infrastructure development in developing countries, mainly in Africa.
Source: RTP Notícias
