Mozambique Government Establishes Team to Negotiate Tmcel Stake Sale

Maputo — The Mozambican government has announced the establishment of a technical team to negotiate the sale of part of the State's stake in the publicly owned telecommunications company, Tmcel. According to government spokesperson and Minister of State Administration, Inocêncio Impissa, speaking to reporters on Tuesday after a meeting of the Council of Ministers (cabinet), the government has already authorized the establishment of the technical team so that the State may sell part of its stake to attract a new investor. The financial situation of Tmcel is very complex. In 2023, the company had a total debt that reached 400 million dollars and it had been unable to pay wages to its 1,700 workers. Former minister of transport and communication, Mateus Magala, had announced an intervention to save the company because it faced the prospect of collapse, losing market share and its revenue was declining. Its technological platforms were outdated, leading to "very high operational and maintenance costs. Almost all the hardware and software are at the end of their useful life, and have no support from the supplier". Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn At the time, Magala said that the favored intervention would be to find a multinational telecommunications operator that was prepared to become a strategic partner of Tmcel, including the sale of 80 per cent of Tmcel shares, while the government would bear all the company's debts, and reduce the company's work force by 60 per cent. According to Impissa, speaking to reporters, seeking to give this company greater momentum, the State, as the holder of part of the shares that make up Tmcel, may dispose of them or may hand them over to a third party and so on. "The sale is one of the solutions found to revive the company, which has faced financial difficulties for several years. This is one of the mechanisms that the State has found to revitalize Tmcel, to give it a little more vitality so that it can continue to provide critical communications services at national level," he said. Tmcel holds a historic position in the Mozambican telecommunications sector. The current company was formed through the merger of Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM) and Moçambique Celular (Mcel), a process concluded in December 2018. Mcel was established in 1997 and was the first company to introduce mobile phone services in Mozambique. Until 2003, it operated as a business unit of TDM, subsequently becoming a separate company. The merger with TDM aimed to address the financial and operational difficulties affecting both state-owned enterprises. Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy . We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. However, the decision to pursue a merger failed to resolve the core issues. In the years that followed, Tmcel continued to grapple with high debt levels, negative financial results, and cash flow difficulties. The latest financial results indicate that the recovery is far from being firmly established. Read the original article on AIM . AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals , representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica . To address comments or complaints, please Contact us . AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating,