Backbone of the Angolan construction industry, Geotécnica has extensive experience in public works.

With cranes thrusting skywards on practically every street corner, a cursory look around Luanda makes it clear that Angola is a country under construction. For over two decades, state-owned company Geotécnica-UEE has been extensively involved in that field and can point to many successes in the areas it has earmarked as its niches of specialization.
These include soil and sub-soil analysis, the consolidation and stabilization of building sites and foundation work on large-scale projects such as dams, tunnels and bridges. They also custom design and build concrete support elements for high-rise structures and the struts that carry horizontally extended networks such as aqueducts, phone and power lines.
"It's not an easy area of specialization because we have to go in and complete our part of the job before the first brick gets laid. It costs other people money if we take too long, so we often have to marshal our resources to tackle one major project at a time," says the company's general manager, Elviro Pimentel de Matos Machado Jr.
But years of experience have led to a mutually rewarding working relationship with some of the most exacting civil engineering and construction firms operating in Angola including Brazil's Odebrecht and Teixera Duarte of Portugal.

ELVINO PIMENTEL DE MATOS MACHADO Jr. General Manager, Geotécnica-UEE

He thinks his firm also stands a good chance of landing the tender for foundation work for the new corporate headquarters of Sonangol, the state petroleum company.
In his view though, Geotécnica's most significant accomplishment has perhaps been in maintaining, stabilizing and consolidating its accounts without any help from the government. "We have been financially autonomous ever since we were founded in 1980.
The other important distinction that sets Geotécnica apart is that it is an all-Angolan firm, not just the work crews, but managers, engineers and technical staff as well. The idea now is to gear up for privatization in hopes of attracting the kind of owner with the means and technical wherewithal to further expand the scope of Geotécnica's product line, as at present, its specialized line of work means the Angolan government is its biggest customer.

The ideal formula, says Mr. Machado, would see 70% of the company's shares going to foreign stakeholders, 20% to Angolan domestic interests and 10% to a single strategic investor. That would allow Geotécnica to diversify into pavement and surfaces–laying down the parking lots and sidewalks for a building while the foundation work is underway–with a new ownership structure, new capitalization and fresh injection of technical expertise.