Angola completes nationalisation of Unitel
November 1st 2022
Angola’s President Joao Lourenco has issued a decision finalising the transfer of ownership stakes in mobile market leader Unitel from private companies Vidatel and Geni to the State. The nationalisation of the two shareholdings – representing 25% equity each – effectively raises the Angolan State’s Unitel ownership to 100%, as TeleGeography notes that Brazilian telco Oi completed the sale of a 25% stake in Unitel to Sonangol in a USD1 billion deal in January 2020, raising the Angolan state-run oil firm’s effective share to 50%, due to it already owning 25% via its subsidiary Mercury Telecom (MSTelcom).
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that: Vidatel (registered in the British Virgin Islands [BVI]) is owned by Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos – daughter of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos – but on 30 December 2019 the Provincial Court of Luanda ordered an asset freeze on her shares, and in December 2020 the BVI Supreme Court ordered judicial administrators to seize control of Vidatel’s bank accounts and remove dos Santos’ voting and dividend rights at Unitel. The database also confirms: the 25% share in Unitel held by Geni – fronted by Angola’s Leopoldino do Nascimento (‘General Dino’, a close associate of former president dos Santos) – was seized in January 2022 by the National Asset Recovery Service (related to a criminal process initiated by the National Directorate of Investigation & Criminal Action under the Attorney General’s Office), and transferred to a trustee, the State Assets & Participations Management Institute (Instituto de Gestao de Activos e Participacoes do Estado, IGAPE).
Under a presidential decree of 5 August 2019 the Angolan state intends to sell direct/indirect stakes in Unitel as part of the country’s 2019-2022 privatisation programme.
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