Angola Plans to Sell Shares in State-Owned Diamond Firm Endiama

Angola plans to carry out an initial public offering of shares in state-owned diamond mining company Empresa Nacional de Diamantes EP in the next three years, according to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum Diamantino Azevedo.

The share sale is expected to complete a series of reforms in the diamond industry that includes transferring Endiama’s role as concessionaire to the National Agency of Mineral Resources. Endiama, which acted as both a regulator and operator in Angola’s diamond sector since it was founded in 1981, is to become a normal company focused on exploration, Azevedo said at a conference in Lisbon on Thursday.

“We’ve started a restructuring process that includes the sale of Endiama shares in the stock market,” Azevedo said. “We expect this process to be completed in 2022.”

The reforms in the diamond sector are similar to the ones currently being carried out in the oil industry, where state- owned oil company Sonangol is also transferring its role as national concessionaire to the National Agency of Petroleum and Gas. The reforms have helped attract investment to Angola’s oil and mining sectors, said Azevedo, without providing details.

The move has also helped increase diamond prices in Angola. Angolan gems are currently being sold at about $110 to $115 per carat compared to $80 per carat in the last few years, said Azevedo.

Angola’s diamond output fell 11% to 8.4 million carats in 2018 from a year earlier, Eugenio Bravo da Rosa, head of state- owned diamond-trading company Sodiam said in a Jan. 13 interview. Still higher gem prices led to an 11% increase in revenue to $1.22 billion, according to Bravo da Rosa, who cited preliminary data. Source: Bloomberg