Mota-Engil announces signing of Africa contracts worth combined €650M

Portugal’s Mota-Engil has signed a range of contracts in several countries in Africa totalling around €650 million for various projects, according to a statement issued via Portugal’s Securities Markets Commission (CMVM).

In the note, which was released late on Monday, the group begins by stating that “one of its subsidiaries for the Africa region has signed a contract in [Guinea] with Rio Tinto Iron Ore Atlantic Ltd. in the amount of circa of 300 million US dollars” – around €280 million.

This contract, the company explained, “is associated with the Simandou project” in the south of Guinea, approximately 650km from the capital, Conakry; under it, Mota-Engil is to carry out work that “include the initial land movement for the establishment of accesses and for the future industrial facilities of a mine, as well as sedimentation basins, spillways and the implementation of erosion control measures.

The project, the note adds, “is scheduled to begin in September 2023 and will have an estimated duration of 30 months.”

In addition, in Nigeria, the company – in consortium with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) – signed two concession contracts for the Lagos–Badagry–Seme and Shagamu–Benin highways (the former connecting the city of Lagos to the centre and southwest of the country, and the latter Lagos to the border of Benin) with a length of 79 km and 258 km, respectively. This contract is for 25 years.

“The scope of the concession contracts provides for the conversion of two current roads into motorways, as well as the design, financing, construction / rehabilitation, operation, and maintenance,” it explains. “The initial investment will be circa of 260 million US dollars (circa … €240 million).”

Finally, it adds, also in Africa, “other smaller contracts have recently been awarded in Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda and Ivory Coast in a total amount of circa of €130 million.”