The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Silvino Moreno, has announced that new investors are prepared to take over the Maragra Sugar Company in the Manhiça district.

The South African group Ilovo, which owns 99% of Maragra, has decided to withdraw. The decision follows Maragra's loss of 3.6 billion meticais due to the floods last February.

Official information indicates that Maragra would need new investments of around 100 million dollars to recover and guarantee the next production cycle.

Without naming names, the minister was quoted by "Notícias" as saying that "the information we have is that there are new owners who will be looking after the company in the near future. The former owners have decided not to continue with the sugar business."

The source revealed that the report on the transfer operation was recently shared with the government as a mere communication, since the executive does not intervene in negotiations on the transfer of ownership of a private company.

However, according to the source, the government facilitated the transaction between the former and current investors, in the hope that the sugar cane plantation would be in a healthy condition in time for the next agricultural season.