RE: Meralco to pull out of PDS partnership over 'political uncertainty'

Ricardo Leitão Machado, President and CEO Ray Espinosa has described as ‘falsehood’, reports which suggested, among others, his company is planning to pull out its investment from Ghana’s electricity distribution utility, due to political uncertainties over the Power Distribution Services (PDS) transaction.

An earlier publication with the headline “Meralco to pull out of PDS partnership over 'political uncertainty'” quoted Mr. Machado as saying “We’re still waiting for developments. It’s a Ghana government issue."

The Herald, which first made the publication, further stated that it had “picked up signals that the owner of Aenergy, another partners in the PDS from Angola – Ricardo Machado, a Portuguese entrepreneur who lives in Angola and very close to an in-law ex-President Dos Santos of Angolan might be having some financial challenges hence unable to help raise funds for the Bank Guarantee which later became Insurance Guarantee.”

“Ricardo Machado, who Founder and CEO of Aenergy boasted in 2018 of having over US$700 million which its ready to invest in its projects across the globe especially Africa, but it is not clear how much money it has invested in the PDS deal for the 19% stake it was offered," it added.

But reacting to the claims, Aenergy and its founder in a statement said they are untrue.

"Ricardo Leitão Machado also rejects any connection to the dos Santos family and reiterates his engagement in clarifying any issue contributing to the public settlement of the facts, within the context of a serious and rigorous journalistic forum aimed at ascertaining the truth." portions of the statement read.

Below is the full statement:

False News Posting about Aenergy

False News Posting about Ricardo Leitão Machado

It has come to Ricardo Leitão Machado’s knowledge, false information published in GhanaWeb about him. These are contents which we reject, label as false and will combat with the adequate clarifications, in the proper place, to hold accountable those found to be involved.

The false information published, surgically mixing falsehoods with facts, constitute also a personal attack of a defamatory nature against our main shareholder, Ricardo Leitão Machado.

Ricardo Leitão Machado also rejects any connection to the dos Santos family and reiterates his engagement in clarifying any issue contributing to the public settlement of the facts, within the context of a serious and rigorous journalistic forum aimed at ascertaining the truth.

Ricardo Leitão Machado is the Founder and CEO of Aenergy. He is a well-respected individual in the energy industry and at governmental levels in several African countries, having accrued 17 years’ experience in a variety of managerial and advisory roles from a diverse background of sectors including engineering, energy, agriculture, asset management, finance and government institutions.

As a reference entrepreneur, Ricardo established successful partnerships with GE Power and GE Transportation, with a business model including social responsibility and re-investment strategies, sustained by innovative solutions delivering energy at half the capex and opex costs in the region and rail technologies modernizing the sector for competitive logistic response complying with international standards, being awarded in 2016, the “GE business of the year in Austral Africa” and designated as the “Innovation Leader in 2017”, becoming one of the top partners for GE in Africa as well as a recognized champion of rigorous compliance and best practices across all its business developments.

Aenergy was founded in 2012 as a sustainable and fully integrated project development company, committed to delivering a strategic five-year plan, developing US$2.5 billion of energy related projects in Africa. Last year, the company was awarded the ISO 37.001 anti-corruption certification, renewed in 2019, being the first African company to achieve this goal.