Cimpor to sell Nova Cimangola stake
Cimentos de Portugal SGPS announced that it agreed to sell its stake in Angolan cement maker Nova Cimangola SA to the Angolan government or Angolan investors designated by the government, as a way of settling its dispute with the country’s authorities. The company and the government have agreed a period of 180 days for negotiations. During that period, all the legal procedures taken by the parties will be suspended. Cimpor believes that, by this means of negotiation, it will be possible to adequately solve the current problem,’ it said.
In January, the company said Angola’s ANIP national investment agency had filed a lawsuit in a Luanda court against Nova Cimangola shareholders Scancem and Scanang, which Cimpor bought in Nov 2004 from Holcim and HeidelbergCement. ANIP wanted to cancel the earlier transfer of a 24.5 per cent stake from HeidelbergCement’s Scancem to Holcim’s Scanang, which now has 49 per cent in Nova Cimangola, on the grounds that the deal violated Angolan law, Cimpor said.
At the Nova Cimangola AGM on Jan 24, Scanang representatives were removed from the governing bodies under conditions that Cimpor believes to be illegal, it said. Cimpor has also been challenging the dissolution by the Angolan government on November 29 of a July 23 protocol agreement between the state and Cimpor about Nova Cimangola. ’The protocol was dissolved by the Angolan state under terms that Cimpor believes are not legitimate,’ it said. Published under Cement News
