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Africa’s richest woman and her fabulous wealth

By on July 15, 2012

Isabel dos Santos (pictured), the eldest daughter of Angola’s President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is now considered to be the most powerful and richest woman in her country and on the continent, possessing  legit nine-figure fortunes.Isabel is worth to be $170 million (Sh272 billion),  according to Forbes Magazine.

At the tender age of 24, Isabel got her start in business, thanks to her father’s influence to corner lucrative state contracts. Having kept close ties with Portugal, Isabel fully owns a Maltese-registered investment, plus a 10 per cent in Zon Multimedia, a Portuguese media conglomerate.

In 2010, Isabel acquired the stake for 164 million Euros going further to own major stakes in Portuguese banks such as Banco Espírito Santo and Banco Português de Investimento, and in Energias de Portugal, which generates and distributes electricity.Isabel is described by the Portuguese newspaper Público as a good business woman, extremely dynamic and intelligent, and also professional and friendly.

The starting point, however, was the creation of Unitel in partnership with Portugal Telecom. Together with her father, she constituted the Geni Holding, as an umbrella for their Portuguese investments.

The holding company is active in the banking, oil, diamonds and construction.All in all, Isabel dos Santos’ fortune in Portugal amounts in mid-2012 to more than 1.4 billion Euros.In 1997, she started her first business by opening the Miami Beach Club, one of the first night clubs and beach restaurants on the Luanda Island that is part of the bay of Luanda.

Using her father’s influence, she also founded Urbana 2000, a subsidiary company of Jembas Group that won the contract for cleaning and disinfection of the city.

Later she worked for Ascorp, a legal trading company for diamonds in Angola. Ascorp had partnered with Lev Leviev.
Over a period of 15 years she expanded her business interests and this led her to create several holdings, in Angola and abroad, and to make substantial investments in a series of enterprises, especially in Portugal.

Since 2008 she has relevant interests in telecommunications, media, retail, finance and the energy industry, both in Angola and in Portugal. In addition to her commercial interest in oil and diamonds, Isabel dos Santos also owns shares in the Angola cement company Nova Cimangola.
To cap it all, Isabel’s wedding was something to remember.

She is married to a Congolese, Sindika Dokolo,the son of a millionaire from Kinshasa.
The wedding, a 4 million-dollar party with 1,000 guests, was one of the largest weddings in the history of the country.

Reports in Portuguese newspapers have it that the guests were flown in from France and Portugal without visas. Best man was the former Minister of Petroleum of Angola, Desidério Costa.

The husband acquired the exploration rights for a mining concession from Endiama, the Angolan state company for diamond exploration and bought a further 5 per cent of Portugal’s leading pay-TV and Internet provider Zon Multimedia from Spain’s Telefonica.

Other major stakes she has together with Angolan state oil company Sonangol through their mutual offshore holding named Esperanza Holding in Portuguese Galp Energia; counting together all of her financial interests, there is to be added Banco Português de Negócios.
The starting point, however, was the creation of Unitel in partnership with Portugal Telecom.

Together with her father, she constituted the Geni Holding,as an umbrella for their Portuguese investments.
The holding company is active in the banking, oil, diamonds and construction. In addition to Isabel dos Santos, Leopoldino Fragoso Nascimento, Anthony Van-Dunem and Manuel Augusto da Fonseca, also took part in the founding.

And was joined by French-Brazilian businessman Pierre Falcone, known from the Angolagate affair.
In 2012, Isabel’s fortune in Portugal in mid-2012 amounted to more than 1.4 billion Euros.

One Comment

  1. report the reporter

    July 16, 2012 at 10:33 am

    Reporter who wrote this article must have done a lot of research – actually plagiarised it directly from Wikipedia!!