Mozambique: Correios de Moçambique to be replaced by a new company; LAM a long way from having its own planes – O País

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Mozambique: Correios de Moçambique to be replaced by a new company; LAM a long way from having its own planes – O País

4:16 CAT | 08 Mar 2022

Photo: O País

Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (Mozambican Airlines – LAM) will lease another aircraft by July this year, said chairperson of State Holdings Management Institute (IGEPE) Ana Isabel Senda Coanai during a working visit by members of parliament’s Budget Planning Commission on Monday.

Seven billion meticais in debt and technically bankrupt, LAM will continue to operate without its own aircraft. “We are not considering an aircraft for now,” Ana Isabel Senda Coanai said. Another plane, in this case, a Bombardier Q400, will arrive in June.

This means that state-owned LAM will continue to have aircraft rental costs – and this is not the only regular expense that the company has. As well as operating expenses, LAM spends 140 million a year on its debts to third parties, payments made on the basis of restructuring the company.

This is the explanation that the IGEPE chairperson gave to journalists after meeting members of the Assembly of the Republic’s Planning and Budget Commission, where she presented the general situation of the companies in the IGEPE portfolio.

A new company to replace ‘Correios de Moçambique’

In general, the institute is currently undertaking the restructuring process of state-owned companies, but this is an intervention that finds the fact that IGEPE is “a poor shareholder” a barrier, as Coanai herself said.

Restructuring sometimes means the extinction of companies.

The most recent example is Correios de Moçambique [the Postal Service]. What is new here is that this firm will be replaced by another, whose creation is now being studied. Some assumptions are already known. It should be, for example, “a new Correios de Moçambique”, better suited to the current reality.

Read: Liquidation of Correios de Moçambique: CIP asks if each building costs 805,000 meticais

Also in the IGEPE’s portfolio of companies is Tmcel, another problematic firm. However, IGPE is optimistic about the future, especially with the investment currently being made. US$134 million is being invested in the 4G network currently being implemented in the Greater Maputo region.

This and other aspects positively impressed the Planning and Budget Commission, said its president, António Niquice, not failing to mention that the IGEPE paid six billion meticais to the treasury in 2020.

It is important to acknowledge, however, that new companies such as Cabora Bassa Hydroelectric (HCB) and Ports and Railways of Mozambique (CFM) have recently been integrated into the IPEGE portfolio.

By Afonso Chavo

Source: O País