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The Venezuelan government will offer between 5% and 10% of the shares in an unspecified number of state-owned companies starting next week, President Nicolás Maduro said in a speech on state television.
The Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro has been taking timid steps to move in the opposite direction to the economic model of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. First, he handed over the reins of some 13 state food companies to third parties, and now he announces that he will democratize some others.
The president announced that, starting next Monday, May 16, the country will offer, through local exchanges, up to 10% of some public companies, including oil, telecommunications and gas companies.
“We are going to get between 5% and 10% of the shares of several public companies for national investment, fundamentally, or international,” said the president during a televised speech on Wednesday, May 12.
The list includes the two state telecommunications companies, Compañía Anónima Nacional de Móviles de Venezuela (Cantv) and Movilnet, and some others from the steel and oil and gas sectors, with the exception of the energy giant Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).
“You will be able to become an investor (…) in all the mixed oil companies, gas companies, companies in Guayana (mining, forestry, aluminum and services sectors),” he added.
A setback for the socialist past of Hugo Chávez
Some of the companies mentioned by the Venezuelan head of state, including telecommunications companies, were nationalized by the Chavez government approximately 15 years ago.
In 2007, Chávez began a wave of expropriations of companies in sectors such as food, manufacturing, oil, electricity, construction and communications, a movement supported by high oil prices that allowed for a better cash flow.
Maduro relaxed economic controls in 2019 as a way to mitigate US sanctions against the country, which has generated an increase in the number of transactions in dollars and given some oxygen to the private sector, although not all economic activities have recovered due to complete, according to analysts.
With EFE and Reuters
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