Mozambique wants intellectual, industrial property at the heart of economic growth
Mcel wants to sell its towers and then lease them back – Hanlon
2:21 CAT | 22 Jun 2016
File photo of a cell phone tower, used here for illustration purposes only
In an attempt to raise money, Mcel is trying to sell its transmissions towers and then lease them back, according to Zitamar (15 June). Four companies which own mobile phone towers in other African countries might be interested.
The mobile company Mcel is 26% owned by the state holding company IGEPE and 74% by the fixed line company TDM, which in turn is 90% owned by IGEPE. The other two mobile telephone companies are Vodacom, owned 85% by Vodacom International, and Movitel, a joint venture of the Vietnamese military company Viettel and the Frelimo party holding company SPI. Zitamar says that Mcel and Vodacom could easily share towers.
For the past year the government has been trying to merge the two state companies, Mcel and TDM. Both have suffered from lack of investment in recent years. Government is under huge pressure to reduce its debts and privatise its state companies, but attempts to privatise Mcel have so far failed, in part because of large Mcel debts, including to TDM. CIP in 2015 and 2016 reports noted that although Mcel paid more than $7 mn in dividends to the state in 2006-13, its accounts are not transparent, and its owes $50 mn to TDM and $10 mn to the state.
TDM is in partnership with the Portuguese group Visabeira, which also owns the Girassol hotel group in Mozambique; each owns 50% of TVCabo and Televisa.
http://www.cip.org.mz/cipdoc%
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Source: News reports & clippings
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