Angola’s projected bid of eight IU and Bina hotels is illegal and must cease
Paris, July 30th, 2025
On Monday 7th July, the Angolan Institute for the Management of State Assets and Shareholdings (IGAPE) reopened a public tender to privatize eight hotel units of the IU and Bina chain.
This new tender comes after the failure, a year ago, of the electronic auction aimed at bidding for the 39 hotels of the IU and Bina chain (only four were sold). This time, the tender will be for the transfer of exploitation rights with an option to purchase. This public tender has been advertised in Angolan newspapers and in Forbes.
At its core, the projected tender is illegal and unacceptably flawed. It appears to rely on the criminal proceedings conducted in Angola against Mr Carlos Manuel de SÃO VICENTE, which has been assessed by UN experts to be violating his fundamental rights.
Indeed, in November 2023, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found, in its opinion 63-2023, that these proceedings had failed to meet the fair trial standards and that
Mr SÃO VICENTE had been convicted following an illegal process, by judicial authorities lacking independence. The UN body condemned his arbitrary detention, as being in contravention of serious gravity with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both ratified by Angola. It urged Angola to immediately release
Mr SÃO VICENTE and to compensate him.
Despite Mr SÃO VICENTE’s lawyers repeated calls for his release, the Angolan authorities have engaged in a veritable campaign of lies and disparagement against him, while dispossessing him and all the companies which he founded further. This projected tender falls within this line of conduct.
Mr. SÃO VICENTE wants to reiterate that he has not committed any crime, and that his wealth is of legitimate origin.
In any event, according to our client, the only legal owner of all hotels is company AAA Activos LDA who has not received any sentence notification. It therefore remains a bona fide third-party, not involved in any judicial proceedings conducted by the Angola authorities to seize or expropriate its buildings.
This relentless campaign against Mr. São Vicente must cease and the Angolan authorities must renounce the projected tender and implement the UN Opinion.
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