The Angolan media is reporting that an Eritrean company called Anseba will be taking over the Kero supermarket chain in Angola. That news is hotly disputed by Alimenta Angola, the Angolan supermarket chain also bidding to take over Kero. Who is Anseba?
Kero was previously owned by the Zahara group and controlled by two cronies of former president José Eduardo dos Santos. Following a change of leadership, the chain was taken over by the state. The bid is to manage the supermarket chain for 10 years, without a purchase option.
In mid-November, Alimenta Angola that it had partnered with Carrefour Brazil (Atacadão) to bid for control of the Kero chain. Kero, which has 12 hypermarkets in Angola, is the third largest grocery chain in Angola by sales.
Another company, Camarufi, had also bid for control of Kero. Camarufi is an FMCG importer and distributor, also reportedly controlled by former army generals close to dos Santos, as Kero was.
The bids have been subject to a formal government assessment by the National Institute for State Assets and Participation (IGAPE), which has seen Anseba score highest. Very little is known about Anseba. We do know there is little operational expertise an Eritrean company can bring from the Eritrean grocery market that is usable to manage a premium supermarket chain in Angola.
From what we can see, Anseba Company Ltd is actually Dubai-based and has existed since at least 2016. Anseba Company Ltd operates hotels and imports goods in South Sudan. It is the owner of one of Juba’s most prestigious hotels, the Pyramid Continental Hotel. There is also a company called Anseba LDA in Angola, which operates in wholesaling and importing and is connected back to Dubai.
Those companies all link back to Dubai-based trading group Eriango Group of Companies. Eriango was founded in the 1960s in Eritrea as a general trading company and moved its head office to Dubai in the 1990s. It has at least five manufacturing/distribution companies within the group: Africa Future Liquid Soap, Africa Future tissue, Ghion Alimentos (see below), Anseba General Trading and Eriango General Trading.
Eriango has operated in Angola for more than fifteen years through companies including Eriango Comercio Geral (ship chandlery) Ghion Alimentos (fruit juice processing), Anseba General Trading and Anseba LDA. Eriango is connected to Asmara Holdings, which has a wide range of commercial interests including FMCG trading, retail, farming, distribution, hospitality and juice processing.
