Cabo Verde Telecom (CVTelecom) completed the approval process for the merger of the three operators of the state-owned mobile and fixed telecommunications, Internet and subscription television group, according to official information.
According to public notices published by the state telecommunications group, consulted today by Lusa, shareholders, including the Cape Verdean state, “according to ministerial authorization order”, approved at a general meeting and “without any conditions” the “project of merger of the companies CV Multimédia and CV Móvel, by incorporation into CVTelecom”.
CVTelecom’s intention to merge the companies of that state-owned group provides for the integrated marketing of different telecommunications services, such as voice, data and television, contrary to what still happens and which is already being done by the competition.
This intention had also been advanced to Lusa, last January, by the president of CVTelecom, guaranteeing that the process will not involve dismissals.
“We don’t know the name yet, but there will be only one company on the side of CVTelecom,” said the chairman of the board of directors of the state-owned group, João Domingos Correia.
“We are predicting that within six months we will have a single company with its businesses”, he added at the time, guaranteeing that this option will allow “gaining operational efficiency” and will have “a positive impact on prices for consumers”.
The merger “will represent a great ease in the life of the consumer customer, who will have a single invoice, who will have a single interlocutor and when he has to solve his problems he will not have to address the six companies separately, but the a single company”, he assured.
On the other hand, the chairman of the board of directors of the CVTelecom group, which has about 400 workers, assumed that there are no redundancies with this merger.
“Surely not. CVTelecom will have to recruit more people, with the appropriate technological profile, and we are in the process of reorganizing, recycling people who are still recyclable and working on the early retirement process for those who intend to go home early”, he added. Joao Domingos Correia.
The CVTelecom group has holdings valued at 1,028 million escudos (9.6 million euros) in several companies, namely CV Móvel (mobile telecommunications network, 100%), CV Multimédia (subscription television and Internet, 100%). and Directel Cabo Verde (Páginas Amarelas, 40%).
The majority of the share capital of the CVTelecom group is held by the National Institute of Social Security (a public institute that manages Cape Verdean pensions), at 57.9%, with the state-owned Aeroportos e Segurança Aérea (20%), Sonangol Cape Verde (5%) and the State of Cape Verde (3.4%) among shareholders, as private nationals (13.7%).
The profits of the state-owned Cabo Verde Telecom (CVTelecom) group increased by 36.5% in 2021, to 284 million escudos (2.6 million euros), and for the third consecutive year sales grew again, despite the crisis caused by the covid-19. -19.
According to the company’s 2021 report and accounts, last year saw sales growth again, 7.9%, with 4,907 million escudos (45.9 million euros) of consolidated revenue, influenced by the growth in telecommuting. and associated resources, despite breaks in traditional sectors.
PVJ // VM
