The self-exiled daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Isabel dos Santos, had her assets frozen at £580 million (R13.5 billion) due to a legal dispute with the telecommunications company Unitel in London.
Angolan Unitel sued Dos Santos and her Dutch holding company Unitel International Holdings for breach of contract on loans totalling approximately €325 million and US$44 million, which were intended to finance UIH’s investments in telecommunications companies.
Despite having similar names, the two companies have no direct corporate ties.
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The court ruling
On Wednesday, a London judge declared that Unitel had prevailed in its bid to impose the freezing order, mentioning dos Santos’s properties, which are valued at over $100 million combined, in Monaco, Dubai, and London.
Unitel maintained that dos Santos had obtained the loans for her personal gain and that their “uncommercial” terms, including absurdly low interest rates, were unjustified. Up until November 2020, Dos Santos served as a director of Unitel; according to the judge, the Angolan government essentially controls the company.
Formerly the wealthiest woman in Africa, Dos Santos is accused of corruption for allegedly causing the country to lose over $5 billion during her father’s 38-year rule. Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for her, and her assets in Portugal and Angola have been frozen. She has continuously refuted any misconduct.
Attorneys for dos Santos contended that the lawsuit was an attempt to politically discredit her, initiated at the government of Angola’s request. They claimed that the case had to be considered in the context of political squabbling.
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About Unitel
As a joint-stock company, Unitel S.A. was founded on March 8, 2001, and it is a private mobile phone company that operates in Angola. Since 2022, the state of Angola has been the owner of the company, which was nationalised at that time.
In addition to providing voice communications, text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages, as well as mobile internet access, the telecommunications company operates a network that is based on GSM and UMTS communication standards. Both post-paid and pre-paid payment options are available for contracts. The telecom company has been providing service to all of the municipalities in Angola since December 2011, when it installed a transmitter in Rivungo, which is located in the province of Kuando Kubango. This station is powered by solar energy.
Previously, the company was owned by Oi and Helios (through Africatel), Sonangol, the state-owned oil company of Angola, as well as local companies such as Geni holding (through Mercury) and Vidatel, which Isabel dos Santos owns. Each of these companies held a 25% stake in Unitel.
The capital of the company is located in Luanda. It has approximately two thousand employees and has had network coverage in almost all of the municipalities in the province since the year 2002.
Additionally, recharging cards for pre-paid contracts are sold by individual street vendors all over Angola. The company sells its services through a network of shops which are located throughout the country. It is also possible to reload prepaid cards through the Multicaixa network of automated teller machines. The population of the United States is estimated to be between 18 and 20 million people, but Unitel claims to have 9 million customers.
In the month of October 2022, the President of Angola, João Lourenço, made a decision that ultimately resulted in the nationalization of Unitel. This decision effectively severed the connections between Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the former president of Angola, and the operator.