She has a 7% stake in the Portugese oil and gas firm Galp Energia, and is the main shareholder of the Portuguese cable TV and telecom company Nos, former ZON Multimédia, with a 29% stake; her investment in the company is valued at over $385 million.
Two weeks later, the Government of Angola announced it was preparing the legal battle to confiscate the assets of Isabel dos Santos in Portugal, a process that has already begun in the form of legal documents sent to Portugal to stop the transfer of money from Portuguese Commercial Bank to a bank in Russia.In the meantime, Isabel is under investigation in Portugal as well and has since assumed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as her official country of residence.Recognized worldwide as the richest woman in Africa, Isabel is also regarded as the first female billionaire in Africa. In addition to becoming actively involved in telecom, she also opened one of Luanda Island’s first nightclubs, as well as owned a big cement business in Angola.These initial businesses raised a platform for future success for the president’s daughter, and soon, she was expanding on an international scale. Her net worth was well established.Today, Santos owns a huge piece of Luanda’s major businesses, with a 25% stake in Unitel, the largest mobile ‘phone network in Angola that has over 80 stores in Luanda and over 10 million clients in the country – this is her most valuable asset at an estimated $1 billion. She is the daughter of Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled the country since 1979. Santos heads Angola’s state-owned oil giant Sonangol.Her assets also include a 42.5% stake in Banco BIC Portugues, an Angolan bank in Portugal, which is the country’s fourth largest bank, and a 20% stake in Banco Português de Investimento, the third largest private Portuguese financial group. She is the owner of Candando, the first Angolan supermarket, and Jadeium, a stake-holding company. Aside from business, she is the president of the Angola Red Cross.
Santos has been Africa’s only female billionaire, and also the continent’s youngest person to accumulate such significant stakes in several industries. However, she has remained in exile in Portugal.On 30 December 2019, a court in Luanda ordered the freezing of her Angolan bank accounts and also the seizure of her stake in companies, including Banco de Fomento Angola and Unitel. She has also engaged in the diamond and oil business on an international scale and has invested massively in these areas. Jadeium, a company also held by the businesswoman, owns 4.918% of ZON Multimedia shares from Telefonica of Spain.Through Unitel International Holdings BV, a company based in Netherlands that is controlled by Isabel, the daughter of the former President of Angola is the major shareholder of ZON Multimédia with 29% since 2012. The couple’s wedding ceremony reportedly cost around $4 million. In 2013, according to research by Forbes, her net worth had reached more than three billion US dollars, making her Africa’s first billionaire woman. * Isabel dos Santos’ 25% stake in mobile telecom firm Unitel. The pair got married in 2002 and have 3 children together.Since 2018, the Angolan Government has been trying to start criminal proceedings against Isabel dos Santos for past corruption crimes which may have led to the county’s ongoing recession crisis. Despite her financial success, the Angolan businesswoman is a controversial figure in many circles, and has been accused of corruption. Isabel Dos Santos is a Angolan Business Executive from Baku, Azerbaijan. In addition, she owns a stake in the Portuguese electric power equipment firm called Efacec Power Solutions.Along with her mother, Santos is involved in the Gibraltar-based diamond business called Trans Africa Investment Services. Her stake is worth an estimated $250 million, according to Forbes estimates.