Angola eyeing Dos Santos' assets

Catarina Demony and Victoria Waldersee - Angola may ask Portuguese authorities to seize assets belonging to billionaire and former first daughter Isabel dos Santos, who is a suspect in a fraud investigation at home, Angola's attorney general Helder Pitta Gros has said.

Angola named Dos Santos a formal suspect over alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of funds during her time as chairwoman of state oil company Sonangol, while Portugal's market watchdog has launched inquiries into various firms in which she holds stakes.

Dos Santos has denied any wrongdoing and, in a statement sent to Reuters on Thursday, said she "always operated within the law and all my commercial transactions have been approved by lawyers, banks, auditors and regulators".

The attorney generals of Portugal and Angola, Lucilia Gago and Pitta Gros, met in Lisbon on Thursday to discuss, among other things, how both countries could collaborate on the Dos Santos' case, Gros told Portuguese broadcaster RTP during a television interview.

Asked by RTP if Angola could ask Portugal to seize Dos Santos' assets, namely her shares in Portuguese companies and Portuguese bank accounts, Gros said: "It could happen ... It could happen."

One of the companies where Dos Santos held shares, Efacec, said on Friday that dos Santos would offload her controlling stake in the firm - her second such move last week.

Efacec said in a statement that Dos Santos had told the board she had decided to withdraw from the company's shareholding structure. It did not specify a reason and made no mention of any accusations against her.

‘Luanda Leaks’

On Wednesday, small Portuguese lender Eurobic, in which Dos Santos was the largest shareholder with a 42.5% stake, said the businesswoman had decided to sell her share.

Dos Santos bought her controlling stake in Efacec for around 200 million euro in 2015 through offshore company Winterfell Industries.

The decisions to withdraw from Efacec and Eurobic come during increased scrutiny of Dos Santos after hundreds of thousands of files - dubbed the "Luanda Leaks" - were released by several news organisations last Sunday.

Dos Santos still holds significant indirect stakes in several important Portuguese firms such as oil firm Galp Energia and telecoms company NOS.

Dos Santos and Portuguese retailer Sonae each own 50% of holding company ZOPT-SGPS, which controls 52.15% of NOS.

Following the scandal, three non-executive board members at NOS stepped down from their roles on Thursday, the company said in a statement.

NOS shares fell by more than 5% on Friday morning before recovering most of the losses to trade 0.9% lower. – Nampa/Reuters