- Written by Toluwani Olamitoke
- Saturday, 02 March 2013 00:00
Saturday Tribune
Isabel
dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos Santos, is
an Angolan investor and is considered by Forbes, an American magazine
as the richest woman in Africa and the most powerful in Angola.
According to research by Forbes, her net worth has reached more than $1
billion, making her Africa’s first woman billionaire. TOLUWANI OLAMITOKE
looks into her activities.
Now president Jose dos Santos will also be known to be the father of Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, who was recently named by Forbes as Africa’s richest woman.
40-year-old Isabel was born on April 1, and is the eldest daughter of the Angolan president.
Isabel studied electrical engineering and business management at the King’s College, London where her mother, Tatiana Kukanova, the first wife of Jose don Santos, now lives.
In London, Isabel had also met her spouse, Sindika Dokolo, the son of a millionaire from Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There were reports on that when they got married in Luanda in December 2002, the wedding ceremony cost about $4 million (n640m). A choir was flown in from Belgium, while two planes were chartered to bring food from France. The wedding had several African presidents in attendance.
Isabel dos Santos is described as a “good businesswoman, dynamic and intelligent. She’s also considered as being professional and “friendly.”
At the age of 24, Isabel started her first business by opening the Miami Beach Club, one of the first night clubs and beach restaurants on the Luanda Island.
Over a period of nearly 20 years, she expanded her business interests and built up her wealth, thanks to her dad who gave her stakes in Angola’s main public companies.
Isabel developed interests in telecommunications, media, retail, finance and the energy industry, both in Angola and in Portugal and is currently sitting on the boards of several companies there.
She owns large stakes in wealthy corporations, including a bank and a cable television company. In addition to her commercial interest in oil and diamonds, Isabel dos Santos also owns shares in the Angola cement company, Nova Cimangola.
Her husband is a member of the board of the company. More importantly, he acquired the exploration rights for a mining concession from Endiama, the Angolan state company for diamond exploration.
Isabel’s assets include a 19.5 per cent share of Banco BPI, one of Portugal’s largest publicly traded bank worth an estimated $465 million (N74.4bn) and a 25 per cent stake in the Angola’s Banco BIC worth a conservative $160 million (N26.6bn).
Last year, she was reported to have increased her share in Portugal’s largest cable television company, Zon Multimedia from 4.9 per cent to 28.8 per cent worth around $385 million (N61.6bn). Those stakes combined with other assets push her net worth over the $1 billion (N160bn) mark.
According to Forbes, sources within Angola say she also owns a 25 per cent stake in Unitel – one of the country’s two mobile phone networks which, according to analysts, is worth a minimum of a billion dollars on its own.
