Angola’s New Shareholders Watched Unitel Go Dark
ANGOLA · MARKETS
Key Facts
—Four days dark: A cyberattack that began on Tuesday 28 July knocked out voice calls, mobile data and internet across Angola. Unitel said nationwide coverage and SMS were restored on Saturday 1 August.
—A 24.88% debut: Unitel shares opened on the BODIVA exchange at 50,000 kwanzas. The move breached the exchange’s own 20% limit on daily price variation.
—11,264 new shareholders: The sale created that many first-time investors, the largest public offer in Angolan history. It beat the previous record held by Banco de Fomento Angola.
—15% of the company: Some 7.5 million ordinary shares were sold in an operation worth 300 billion kwanzas. Demand covered the offer roughly 1.2 times.
—First-session volume: The stock changed hands more than 200 times by early afternoon. About 96,000 shares worth over 4.1 billion kwanzas traded, the largest line of the session.
—The rest of the board fell: BODIVA’s own shares dropped 5.88% to 80,000 kwanzas. BFA fell 0.92%, BAI 1.36% and ENSA 1.41%.
—A six-stock market: BODIVA now lists six companies. Angola’s equity market remains one of the smallest in Africa.
The Unitel cyberattack cut Angola’s largest mobile network for four days, and it landed in the same week the company completed the biggest share sale the country has ever run. The stock still opened 24.88% higher, while millions of customers had no signal.
What the Unitel cyberattack took out
The outage was not a partial degradation of service. Voice calls, mobile data and internet all stopped working nationwide.
It began on Tuesday 28 July. Thirty-six hours later, customers still had nothing.
Unitel announced on Saturday 1 August, the fourth day, that nationwide coverage and SMS had been restored. Full normalisation would follow in the coming days, the company said.
Chairman Aguinaldo Jaime had told the listing ceremony earlier that week that services would be back the same day. They were not.
The company has not published a technical account of how the breach worked, or named anyone responsible. Figures about a ransom demand have circulated on aggregator sites without appearing in any primary source, and are not repeated here.
A debut that ran through the ceiling
Unitel shares began trading on the Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola at 50,000 kwanzas, 24.88% above the reference price. That was large enough to breach the exchange’s own 20% cap on daily price movement.
By early afternoon the stock had traded more than 200 times. Roughly 96,000 shares worth over 4.1 billion kwanzas changed hands, the largest single line of the session.
The enthusiasm did not spread. BODIVA’s own listed shares fell 5.88% to 80,000 kwanzas, while BFA slipped 0.92%, BAI 1.36% and ENSA 1.41%; Caixa Angola was unchanged.
The biggest share sale Angola has run
BODIVA executive commission chair Cristina Lourenço said demand for the 7.5 million ordinary shares on offer, representing 15% of Unitel’s capital, outstripped supply. Coverage came in at roughly 120%.
The operation was worth 300 billion kwanzas and created 11,264 new shareholders. That makes it the largest public offer in Angolan history, ahead of the record previously held by Banco de Fomento Angola.
Unitel reached the market by an unusual route. The state took control of the stake once held by Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, and folded the holding into the privatisation programme.
Why the shareholder count matters
Until this sale, Angola’s equity market was a narrow instrument. The exchange lists six companies, and most Angolans held no direct stake in any of them.
Eleven thousand new investors change that arithmetic. They also create a constituency that can sell, and that will read the next Unitel outage as a portfolio event rather than an inconvenience.
That is the real significance for anyone watching Angola from outside. Operational risk at a formerly state-controlled utility now has a price that updates every trading day.
What the privatisation programme is for
The sale sits inside a wider effort to loosen the state’s grip on the economy. Angola has been selling minority stakes in its strongest companies through the state asset manager, IGAPE.
The logic is to widen the tax base and deepen a shallow capital market at the same time. Crude still dominates the public finances, and the government has said repeatedly that it wants that to change.
Unitel was always going to be the flagship. It is the country’s largest mobile operator and, unlike the oil sector, it touches almost every household.
What to watch next
The first test is whether Unitel publishes a credible account of the breach and what it cost. Angolan retail investors now have a financial reason to ask.
The second is the privatisation calendar. More state holdings are queued for sale, and this listing will be read as the template.
The debut says appetite exists. The blackout says the assets on offer carry risks that no prospectus fully prices.
More: Angola news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently asked questions
What happened to Unitel’s network in Angola?
A cyberattack that began on Tuesday 28 July knocked out voice calls, mobile data and internet nationwide. Unitel said coverage and SMS were restored on Saturday 1 August, the fourth day.
How did Unitel shares perform on their first day?
The shares opened on the BODIVA exchange at 50,000 kwanzas, 24.88% above the reference price. That breached the exchange’s own 20% limit on daily price variation.
How big was the Unitel share sale?
Unitel sold 7.5 million ordinary shares, or 15% of its capital, in an operation worth 300 billion kwanzas. Demand covered the offer roughly 1.2 times.
How many people bought shares in Unitel?
The sale created 11,264 new shareholders. That makes it the largest public offer in Angolan history, ahead of the previous record held by Banco de Fomento Angola.
Who owned Unitel before the listing?
The state took control of the stake once held by Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos. The holding was then folded into Angola’s privatisation programme.
Connected Coverage
The sale itself and the US$321 million it raised are covered in Angola’s biggest IPO, the route to the exchange in Unitel’s seizure from Isabel dos Santos, and the wider sell-off in Angola’s privatisation of its state giants. For the money still underwriting the state see Angola’s crude earnings and China’s share of them; the contest for the continent’s assets is the subject of our key topic, Africa: The New Scramble, with more on our Southern Africa hub.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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