25 November 2007
Maputo — Mozambique's second largest bank, the BCI- Fomento, after lengthy negotiations, has a new ownership structure, as of last Thursday, when the long-awaited sale of shares to the Mozambican group INSITEC was finalised.
The BCI remains dominated by Portuguese capital. The largest shareholder is the Portuguese state bank, the Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD), whose holding rises from 42 to 51 per cent. A second Portuguese financial institution, the BPI (Portuguese Investment Bank) holds 30 per cent, while INSITEC holds the remaining 19 per cent.
This is the result of the sale of the shares held by the company SCI, led by former Finance Minister Abdul Magid Osman. Part of the deal is that INSITEC chairperson Celso Correia, at the age of just 29, will take over from Magid Osman as non-executive chairperson of the BCI board. Day-to-day running of the bank will be in the hands of an Executive Commission led by the jurist Ibraimo Ibraimo.
The final phase of negotiations lasted for about a fortnight, and produced 78 legal documents that had to be agreed and signed.
"The deal is completed", Magid Osman announced on Thursday night.
"The INSITEC group is now part of the BCI. This is the first time there has been a public sale of this kind in Mozambique. We have guaranteed the presence of a Mozambican group in the BCI".
Magid Osman thought it an "enormous advantage" that the deal left two Mozambicans, Correia and Ibraimo, at the head of the bank, since both were "very sensitive" to the key questions of the Mozambican economy.
"For INSITEC, this was a major investment. We are satisfied", said Correia, but without revealing how much the shares had cost.
He added that one of INSITEC's key values was "national awareness", and so he intended to take seriously the government's call that banks should set up branches in rural areas.
Magid Osman founded the BCI ten years ago, and although most of the shares are held by Portuguese institutions, over 80 per cent of the Bank's staff are Mozambicans.
Further changes could be on the way, since negotiations are under way in Lisbon for a merger between the BPI and the largest Portuguese bank, the BCP (Portuguese Commercial Bank). The BCP is the majority shareholder in the largest Mozambican bank, the Millennium-BIM (International Bank of Mozambique).
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hi i would just like to say that mozambique is a country full of intellegent people why mus we employ foregners they get highly paid treat us bad and also undermin our intellegence.
i have seen two different nations with the same catogary but only bcoz the one is white and from portugal he earns more then the mozambican,why must we study and pay unversities if thats the case i dnt understand,please people in high comitee employ us we are one and we can never be united if this is happening the foreignsare taking over in our country,
many thanks
a concerned citizen
I was looking through the news and I was so happy. First Cabora Bassa is finally 'ours' and now the BCI-Fomento. I live in Canada and every evening look at african news. Tonight although it is snowing and cold I will feel warm inside to see that A Luta Continua. I was born in Lisbon in 1941 but in 1975 after attending the Independence cerimony in the Machava Stadium I felt I have to become a mozambican citizen which I did when the Lei da Nacionalidade came out. We have great people and like the late Samora Machel used to say 'a nossa grande riqueza e o povo mocambicano'. Ana Maria Ferreira