Angola’s largest telecommunications company, Unitel, began trading on the Bolsa de Dívida e Valores de Angola (BODIVA) on Tuesday after completing the country’s biggest initial public offering, raising AOA 300.3 billion ($328 million).

All 50 million Unitel shares are now listed on the exchange, giving the company a market value of about $2.14 billion. The listing also marks a milestone for Angola’s capital markets, making Unitel the first non-financial company to trade on BODIVA.

Government stake sale tops range

The government sold a 15% stake, or 7.5 million shares, at AOA 40,040 ($43.60) each, the top of the price range approved by capital markets regulator Comissão do Mercado de Capitais (CMC). The offer, which ran from July 6 to July 24, attracted about 11,000 investors who submitted bids worth AOA 362 billion ($394.4 million), leaving the IPO about 21% oversubscribed. During the offering, state asset manager IGAPE received 18,571 applications and approved 17,549.

The stock market debut came a day after Unitel disclosed that it had suffered a major cyberattack at 2:20 a.m. on July 28 that disrupted voice, mobile data and internet services across Angola. The company said it was working to restore operations after the outage lasted for more than 24 hours.

Founded in 1998 and commercially launched in 2001, Unitel provides mobile voice, broadband, 5G and digital financial services through UNITEL Money.

Unitel serves more than 21 million customers and controls about 76% of Angola’s mobile market. It also operates in São Tomé and Príncipe and Cape Verde, and owns a 51.9% stake in Banco de Fomento Angola, which completed its own IPO in 2025.

State takeover reshaped ownership

Unitel became fully state-owned in 2022 after Angola seized two 25% stakes held through Vidatel, linked to Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, and Geni, a company associated with former military general Leopoldino “Dino” Nascimento.

The ownership dispute remains unresolved. Isabel dos Santos, once ranked as Africa’s richest woman, continues to challenge the nationalization in court and has denied wrongdoing.

Privatization drive gains market traction

The Unitel listing forms part of Angola’s PROPRIV privatization program, launched by President João Lourenço in 2019 to reduce the state’s role in the economy and attract private investment.

The government plans to divest stakes in 10 strategic companies before the end of 2026, including diamond producer Endiama EP, national carrier TAAG-Linhas Aéreas de Angola and fixed-line operator Angola Telecom.

IGAPE Chairman Álvaro Fernão said the stock exchange remains the preferred route whenever companies are ready for listing because it broadens ownership and strengthens corporate governance.

The privatization program originally targeted the sale of 130 state-owned assets. According to IGAPE, 120 have already been sold, generating contracted proceeds of about 1.28 trillion kwanzas ($1.4 billion), although roughly 17% of those payments are still outstanding.