Shipping 2026

ANGOLA Law and Practice Contributed by: José Miguel Oliveira, António Caxito Marques, Caio de Mello Ferreira and João Saiago Canjeque, VdA

the borrower is not going to be represented at the notary deed by any of its legal representatives/ directors; • identification documents of the representatives of the parties signing the notary deed; • certified copies of the loan agreements and/or resolution issued by the relevant corporate body of the lender approving the loans and the underlying terms and conditions of the mortgage, notably the amount of principal plus the amount equivalent to five years of interest; • a copy of the minutes of the resolution passed by the relevant corporate body of the borrower approving the granting of the mortgages to the benefit of the lender and the underlying terms and conditions, notably the amount of the principal plus the amount corresponding to five years’ interest; and • certificates of ownership of the vessels issued by the NMA and the Commercial Registry Office. All documents executed or issued outside Angola must be previously legalised before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or equivalent), translated into Portu - guese and then consularised before the Angolan con - sulate with jurisdiction over the country where the said documents were issued, as a precondition for being deemed valid, acceptable and enforceable in Angola (Angola is not a party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisa - tion for Foreign Public Documents). Registration With the Commercial Registry Office Once executed, the notary deed must be registered with the Commercial Registry Office. In this respect, the following must be stressed. • Registration with the Commercial Registry Office is a condition precedent for the effectiveness of mort - gages; in other words, pending said registration, mortgages remain ineffective, even inter partes, for all legal purposes. • Mortgages registered with the Commercial Registry Office remain valid and enforceable for an indefinite period of time, unless: (a) the obligation secured is extinguished by per - formance; (b) the mortgaged assets (vessel) are transferred

to a third party (in which case, termination of the mortgage will occur 20 years after registra - tion of the transfer of title and five years after the final maturity of the secured obligation); or (c) cancellation is authorised by the mortgagee. • The ranking of security interests or privileges over ships is linked to the order by which said interests or privileges were registered (prior in tempore, potior in iure). Registrations with the Commercial Registry Office are made by means of: • the filing of an official form; and • submission of the relevant supporting documents, including a certified copy of the notary deed. In addition to this, constitutional documents (deeds, commercial extracts or equivalent documents) of both the mortgagor and mortgagee are usually required by the registrar, although such disclosure is not legally grounded. Registrations before the Commercial Registry Office may be requested by a legal representative or duly appointed attorney of the mortgagor or the mortga - gee, within 90 days of the execution of the notary deed. Failure to file the relevant application within that period may lead to the application of fines, although such fines do not undermine the validity of the reg - istration. It is worth mentioning that the law sets forth the pos - sibility of securing a provisional registration of a mort - gage over a ship before execution of the notary deed. To that end, the mortgagor must file an application with the Commercial Registry Office authorising reg - istration of a mortgage over a given ship in favour of the mortgagee. This (provisional) registration is valid for a term of three months, which is renewable. The priority of the prospective mortgage over other secu - rity interests, once the definitive mortgage is created, is ensured by provisional registration, which protects a mortgagee against concurrent mortgagees and allows the execution of a mortgage without the pressure of priority being given in the register to another mort - gage, even where created later on.

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