Angola eyes opening stock exchange in third quarter

LUANDA – Angola expects to open a stock market in the capital, Luanda, in the third quarter of 2009, as hopes of a global economic recovery increase investor appetite for stocks.

The launch of the stock exchange had been expected to take place in the first quarter of the year, but the financial crisis, which sent shockwaves through stock markets around the world, prompted many Angolan firms to hold back from listing.There are currently no listed companies.The chairman of the CMC Angolan stock exchange, Cruz de Lima, said he expects state-run oil firm Sonangol, Angola’s largest company, to list one or more of its subsidiaries along with up to 50 other state and privately owned companies.’We are all set to go,’ Cruz de Lima said in an interview with Reuters. ‘The government had a busy agenda this year … and had to postpone plans to open the stock market until the third quarter.’Cruz de Lima added many Angolan companies were eyeing the stock market again as an alternative source of funding amid rising hopes of a global economic recovery. Leading commercial bank BFA and telecoms group Unitel have not ruled out a listing.’Some six or eight months ago some companies said they would no longer enter the stock market. But their views then no longer make sense,’ he said in an interview with Reuters.’Many companies want to list their shares in the stock market. It is now up to the government to decide which public companies it wants to list. But our stock exchange will be attractive for investors even without state-owned firms.’He added that the government would soon approve a new regulatory framework for the Luanda Stock Exchange and appoint a new board for the Capital Markets Commission, which Cruz de Lima currently heads, that would pave the way for the stock market opening.’It’s one of the government’s top priorities.’The government has said it plans to list a subsidiary of Sonangol, which holds a monopoly over Angola’s oil sector, while officials from state-owned diamond firm Endiama have also said they were eyeing the stock market.Angola rivals Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer and is the world’s fifth-biggest diamond producer. Although its economy has suffered from falling oil and diamond prices, the non-oil sector is expected to remain robust.The government is investing billions of dollars to rebuild roads, ailing communications and jump-start Angola’s once-prosperous agricultural sector that was destroyed by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002. It recently revised downwards gross domestic product growth to 6,2 per cent this year from an initial forecast of 11,8 per cent. – Nampa-Reuters