Mozambique: State injected €52.2M into airport manager AdM, airline LAM – from 2020 to 2023

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: State injected €52.2M into airport manager AdM, airline LAM – from 2020 to 2023

12:51 CAT | 16 Sep 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The Mozambican state injected a total of 3.7 billion meticais (€52.2 million) between 2020 and 2023 in financial rescues for two public enterprises in the aviation sector, according to a report from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to which Lusa had access on Monday.

According to the report on fiscal risks for 2025, during that period the “state had to intervene to rescue companies that were having financial difficulties, particularly AdM [Aeroportos de Moçambique, which manages Mozambique’s airports] and LAM [the national airline].

“For these companies, in 2025, the state will be exposed to a fiscal risk estimated at 1.2% of GDP” or gross domestic product, it reads.

The report also recognises that the “low profitability and lack of liquidity of some companies” in the public sector “results in an accumulation of late payments, which can translate into additional charges for the state budget.

“Systematically,” it states, AdM, state-controlled mobile telecoms operator TmCel and LAM “have been registering payment delays with internal and external creditors” that totalled around 3.950 billion meticais (€55.7 million) in 2023.

The total indebtedness of Mozambique’s public enterprises fell by almost 2% in the first quarter, to the equivalent of $601.8 million (€561 million), according to government figures reported in June by Lusa.

According to a report on the evolution of Mozambique’s public debt by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the stock of external debt grew by 0.36% in the first quarter of this year from the last quarter of 2023, to $274.5 million (€256.2 million).

Total domestic debt, meanwhile, fell by 3.3% in the same period, to 20.912 billion meticais (€305.5 million ), which this report says “results from the contraction of the debt stock” by state-owned companies compared to the previous quarter.

State-owned fuel distributor Petromoc alone reduced its domestic indebtedness by 512.5 million meticais (€7.5 million) in three months, to 113.5 million meticais (€1.6 million).

At the end of March, domestic debt contracted by companies in which the state has a stake was led by flag carrier LAM, with 6.828 billion meticais (€100 million), an increase of 0.9% in three months.

Source: Lusa