Saurimo, Angola, Oct. 27, 2024 (Lusa) - Begun 25 years ago in Saurimo, Angola's diamond capital, the Portuguese business group 7Cunhas has transformed itself in two decades into a multifaceted empire that has invested more than €500 million in the African country.
Speaking to Lusa about opening a new hotel in Saurimo, the capital of Lunda Sul province, spokeswoman Andra Queirós told Lusa how the group has grown since Antonio Cunha, a businessman from Trás-os-Montes, arrived in Angola in the 1980s to explore business opportunities.
Born in Caíde de Rei, in the Louzada region, Antonio Cunha had always dreamed of owning his own business and founded his paint company in Portugal at the age of 18, a business that was already consolidated when he decided to come to Angola to assess the market.
With the peace agreement signed in 2002, the national reconstruction programme designed at the time to recover Angola from almost 30 years of civil war opened the door to the world of construction for the businessman, who in the meantime won his first project to fill in gullies in Saurimo.
Like other Angolan cities, Saurimo was and is hit hard by heavy tropical rains that open up huge gullies in neighbourhoods, roads, and areas bordering the city, threatening homes and people. This type of work ended up becoming one of the focuses of the group's activity to this day.
‘António Cunha opened companies as he identified market niches,’ said Andra Queirós. Restaurants, a cinema-disco, hotels, consultancies and travel agencies sprang up, expanding the group to 30 companies today.
Expansion was also geographical, with the group moving on, after Saurimo, to Dundo, in Lunda Norte, and five other provinces, but continuing to have a greater presence in eastern Angola.
With an annual turnover of around 85 billion kwanzas (around €85 million), of which construction activities generate 70% to 80%, the group expects to achieve a similar turnover this year since "the portfolio of works that sustains the activity is always consistent".
Andra Queirós says that ‘things have been improving since 2023’ and that the aim is to reinvest.
‘We want to believe that this will continue and that in the coming years, we will continue reinvesting the money,’ she emphasised.
The Seven Studios aparthotel, 7Cunhas' most recent project in Saurimo, which involved an investment of nine million dollars (€8.33 million) of its own capital, is proof of this desire to invest in the province.
‘The perspective is always the province's development, if the province grows, so do we,’ he emphasised.
With 24 rooms and six flats, the development is geared towards a business segment, filling the existing accommodation shortage at a time of intensifying demand.
‘We realised there was a lot of demand because of the diamond sector. Saurimo is currently a supply centre for all this diamond production around Lunda Sul and Lunda Norte,’ said the head of the group.
Real estate is also part of the 7Cunhas group's short-term plans, with a possible expansion of the existing condominium into a second phase.
RCR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
