Angola Cancels Telstar Mobile Phone License, to Open New Tender

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angolan President Joao Lourenco canceled a decision to award Telstar Telecomunicacoes, a privately held company, the southwest African nation’s fourth mobile license.

“The president annuls the outcome of the competition to ensure a clean and transparent procedure,” the Angolan presidency said in an emailed statement on Thursday. “The Ministry of Telecommunications will formalize the opening of a new tender within 30 days.”

The tender, the results of which were announced on April 12, was meant to be another step to increase competition and shake up the business environment Lourenco inherited from his predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who left his family and allies in control of swathes of the economy when he stepped down. But the government’s decision to grant the license to an unknown local company, whose main shareholder is an army general, was widely criticized by analysts in Angola.

Telstar was established in January last year, at least a month after bids opened, according to TeleGeography, a telecommunications market research and consulting firm based in Carlsbad, California. According to the Government Gazette, army General Manuel Joao Carneiro owns 90 percent and Antonio Mateus, a local businessman, holds the rest.

Luanda-based Telstar beat 26 local and international firms for the mobile-phone license, Telecommunications Minister Jose Carvalho da Rocha said on April 12.

Source: Bloomberg Business News