Angola: Isabel dos Santos loses control of 25% stake in telecoms operator Unitel

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Angola: Isabel dos Santos loses control of 25% stake in telecoms operator Unitel

7:18 CAT | 09 Dec 2020

File photo: Lusa

Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, who owned 25% of Angola’s telecommunications operator Unitel, via Vidatel, has lost control of that company, according to a decision by the British Virgin Islands Supreme Court made public by PT Ventures.

According to a statement by PT Ventures, the court decided, on 19 November, following a lawsuit, to set up judicial administrators for the management of specific assets of Vidatel, Limited, one of Isabel dos Santos’s companies registered in the Virgin Islands, transferring to the management all bank accounts held and/or controlled by Vidatel.

The directors will also now control the 25% participation, including the rights inherent to such participation, namely voting rights and Vidatel’s representation in Unitel’s shareholders’ meetings and the right of Vidatel to receive past and future dividends (including interest on them) from Unitel.

According to PT Ventures, a company acquired by Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol, which thus became the majority shareholder of Unitel (50%), “the purpose for which the co-administrators of justice are appointed is to preserve and secure the relevant assets, pending confirmation of Vidatel’s conviction in relation to the arbitration award rendered in favour of PT Ventures on 20 February 2019 before the Paris Court of Appeal”.

The Paris Arbitration Court ordered the “founding shareholders” of that telecommunications company to pay PT Ventures two indemnities totalling 654.2 million dollars (568.8 million euros).

The decision was disclosed at the time by Unitel, according to which the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered the company to pay compensation of US$339.4 million (295.1 million euros) and US$314.8 million (273.7 million euros).

According to the statement published on Monday by PT Ventures, the co-administrators of justice must take all measures that they deem necessary or desirable, including “measures to protect the relevant assets. As a result of this decision, Vidatel is no longer under the control of Isabel dos Santos and, consequently, the 25% of Unitel’s shares held by Vidatel, are also no longer under the control of Isabel dos Santos.

Last month, Unitel began legal proceedings in London against Unitel International Holdings (UIH), owned by Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, to recover a debt of over 350 million euros.

The complaint, dated 26 October, claims repayment of seven loans granted between May 2012 and August 2013 by Unitel to UIH which, it noted, “despite its name, has no business connection or affiliation with Unitel.

Unitel claims that UIH owes €325,305,539 and $43,937,301 (about 37 million euros), plus default interest.

According to the document submitted to the Trade Division of the High Court in London, the loans were intended to finance the purchase of shares in the Portuguese telecommunications operator Zon, the acquisition of T+ Telecomunicações in Cabo Verde and the investment in Unitel in São Tomé and Príncipe.

In August, Sonaecom announced it had reached an agreement with Isabel do Santos to dissolve ZOPT, following the seizure of dos Santos’s assets by the Portuguese courts, triggered by the “Luanda Leaks” case.

Unitel claims that the operation, as well as the misappropriation of dividend payments by NOS, emptied UIH of capital or sources of income.

Isabel dos Santos has previously rejected receiving unjustified transfers from Unitel, guaranteeing, in turn, to be a creditor of the operator which allegedly did not repay a loan it had obtained from Vidatel Ltd.

Unitel denied the existence of this debt, recognising that Vidatel had dividends to receive, which were not transferred due to the seizure by the Luanda Court of Isabel dos Santos’ holdings in several Angolan companies.

In December 2019, the Luanda provincial court ordered the preventive seizure of the assets of Isabel dos Santos and Sindika Dokolo, her husband, including nine companies in which the company holds shares, including the Sodiba brewery, Condis, which owns the Candando hypermarket network, the television operator Zap Media, the cement company Cimangola and the telecommunications operator, Unitel.

The preventive seizure of Vidatel’s 25% stake in Unitel has been recognised by the British Virgin Islands Court, PT Ventures adds.

Until January of this year, Unitel was controlled by four shareholders, each with 25%: PT Ventures (owned by Brazil’s Oi), the state oil company Sonangol, Vidatel (owned by Isabel dos Santos) and Geni (owned by General Leopoldino “Dino” Fragoso do Nascimento).

On 26 January, Sonangol bought PT Ventures’ position, for US$1 billion (900 million euros) becoming the largest shareholder of the Angolan operator.

On 19 January the International Investigative Journalism Consortium revealed over 715,000 files, called ‘Luanda Leaks’, that detail alleged financial schemes that would have allowed Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, who has since died, to withdraw money from the Angolan public treasury via tax havens.

Source: Lusa