Teixeira Duarte, Feel Afrika to invest $10M in Luanda hotel
The hotel in Angola is due to open on July 15, and around 100 recently hired staff are currently being trained.
The Teixeira Duarte/Feel Afrika consortium, which won the tender to operate and manage the Talatona Convention Hotel (HCTA), will invest about US$10 million (€9.8 million) in the hotel complex.
According to businessman Jaime Freitas of Feel Afrika, the hotel, which has already undergone refurbishment work, is due to open on July 15, and around 100 recently hired staff are currently being trained.
Opened in 2009, the HCTA represented, at the time, an investment of US$200 million and was the first five-star hotel in Angola.
It was one of the assets that state oil company Sonangol decided to dispose of as part of the Angolan government’s Privatisation Programme, initially through the sale but later opting for a five-year concession with an option to buy.
According to the Institute for Management of State Assets and Participation (IGAPE) website, the amount awarded to the consortium, which will be the reference price for the call option, was 17.8 billion kwanzas (€41 million).
Freitas said that the consortium had committed to investing US$10 million, of which it had already spent over US$1 million on refurbishment work and equipment, given that the building was empty.
The businessman noted that the partnership with Teixeira Duarte (which owns three hotels in Angola via TD Hotels) was decisive, both due to the group’s experience in the hotel sector and construction, making it possible to carry out the work in a short period.
“I am one of the people most linked to the hotel business in Angola, and I believe that this has been a partnership that can complement and continue with other projects,” he noted.
The consortium also won the tenders for the concession of Infotur (Tourism Promotion Institute) hotels in the provinces of Huíla and Namibe, which will also undergo refurbishment in phases.
Asked whether he was available to exercise the HCTA purchase option when the deadline expires, Freitas stressed that he would make the proper analysis in economic terms but admitted that it is a strong possibility.
The contract of cession of exploration and management rights foresees the payment of fixed rent and variable rent, depending on the invoicing, to Sonangol, whose values were not revealed.
Lusa also tried to hear Teixeira Duarte and Sonangol about the project, with no response.