Ministry of Finance 'hides' information on the application of dividends withdrawn from Carlos São Vicente at Standard Bank Angola.

Through IGAPE, Minfin took control of the holdings of the veteran businessman and son-in-law of the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto. With confiscation, everything that belonged to São Vicente in Standard Bank Angola passed to the State. As the bank had profits of 66 billion Kwanzas, part of the dividends that were for the manager was given to the Ministry of Finance. To Kieto Economia, IGAPE refers to silence, without saying how much it received and where it applied these values.

Dário do Leste e Julieta Paquete

The Ministry of Finance (Minfin), through the Institute for the Management of State Assets and Participations (IGAPE), the body that controls businessman Carlos São Vicente's holdings in Standard Bank Angola (SBA), refused to reveal to Kieto Economia how much it received from the distribution of dividends for the 2022 financial year and where it applied them.

Also in 2021, the bank recorded profits and the State was already in control of Carlos São Vicente's positions in the business. In this period, there was also a distribution of results and, once again, Vera Daves' team, at IGAPE, 'shelved' the data on how it has treated the resources it receives from confiscations.

Carlos São Vicente was convicted in a case in which the State accuses him of fraud and embezzlement, and is therefore imprisoned in the Viana Jail, with his means and businesses seized by the State. The businessman holds 49% of the shares in Standard Bank Angola.

With the conviction and seizure of the positions in the bank, everything that belonged to Carlos São Vicente passed, in this way, to the control of the Angolan State, which, through the Ministry of Finance or IGAPE, took over the 49% of the businessman's structure in the banking institution that has roots in South Africa.

As Standard Bank Angola made profits last year, precisely net profits of 66 billion Kwanzas, 42.6 billion of which for the distribution of dividends to shareholders, the part that was to be given to São Vicente or its legal representatives was channeled to the State and the remainder to the usual legal reserves of commercial banks.

However, questioned by Kieto Economia about how Minfin, through IGAPE, has applied the resources from this arrest, Minister Vera Daves' team remained silent, preferring to 'shelve' the data that would explain the treatment that the Angolan State has been giving to Carlos São Vicente's shares confiscated in Standard Bank Angola.

A family source of the businessman São Vicente attests that neither the Government, through IGAPE, nor the bank, contacted or passed on any resources to the family of the businessman imprisoned in the Viana jail and who, according to the lawyers, suffers from health problems. In fact, not even for the revitalization of other businesses that the manager had in other organizations did the State sympathize with this, which is leaving other businesses in São Vicente and putting several young people and managers unemployed.

An example is the IKA hotel chains, which, in Luanda and other parts of the country, have been forced to close down to make way for various public institutions, such as the district courts.

To Kieto Economia, a banking analyst and a jurist argue that, in these cases, the State has an obligation to apply/allocate the resources from this type of seizure in the General State Budget (OGE) or in budget units provided for in the State financial plan.

The fact is that, analysts point out, in the 2023 State Budget rationale report or even in the 2024 Budget proposal, Minfin does not include resources from Standard Bank Angola among the sources of financing for the 2023 State Budget for the economic years in reference. 

Thus, it is not known where the Government has applied these resources and what its intentions are with regard to the position seized from Carlos São Vicente in Standard Bank Angola

This is not the first case of silence on the part of Minfin with regard to seizures. There are also the examples of Unitel, Zap. 

With this scenario, the same commentators point out, that the State, by seizing these assets, is more concerned with financing projects of other figures close to the current government structure. This is the case of the stake of Standard Bank Angola, which, according to several sources from Kieto Economia, is already being negotiated for delivery to a large economic group with privileged relations in the Presidential Palace.

This newspaper sent a questionnaire to the IGAPE Communication Office, made phone calls to those responsible, but, until the closing of this edition, I did not get any answers.