Isabel Dos Santos Biography
Isabel dos Santos was born on 1 April 1973, she is an Angolan businesswoman, Africa’s richest woman and the eldest child of Angola’s former President José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979 to 2017. In November 2015, the BBC named Isabel dos Santos as one of the 100 most influential women in the world.
Isabel Dos Santos Age
Isabel dos Santos was born on 1 April 1973. she is 46 years old as of 2019.
Isabel Dos Santos Education
She attended the all-girls boarding school in Kent, Cobham Hall. She studied electrical engineering at King’s College in London. There she met her husband from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Sindika Dokolo, a son of a millionaire from Kinshasa and his Danish wife.
Isabel dos Santos Career
Isabel dos Santos started working as a project manager engineer for Urbana 2000, a subsidiary of Jembas Group, that had won a contract to clean and disinfect the city this was after she returned from London in the early 1990s to join her father in Luanda.
Following that, she framed up a trucking business. The widespread use of walkie-talkie technology paved the way for her subsequent foray into telecoms. In 1997, she began 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, leading to the creation of several holdings, in Angola and mostly abroad, making substantial investments in high-profile enterprises, especially in Portugal.
In June 2016, she was appointed by President dos Santos as chairwoman of Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company. The controversial appointment in the wake of similar appointments of children of the president to key posts led to speculation in the Angolan media in March 2017 that Isabel dos Santos would leave Sonangol, which proved to be unfounded.
Isabel Dos Santos Family
Isabel dos Santos was born in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, she is the oldest daughter of Angola’s former President José Eduardo and his first wife, the Russian-born Tatiana Kukanova. Her father’s parents came from São Tomé and Príncipe.
Isabel dos Santos Husband
Sindika Dokolo is the husband of Angolan businesswoman, Africa’s richest woman Isabel dos Santos. Sindika Dokolo was born on 16 March 1972. He is a Congolese art collector and businessman. He owns one of the most important contemporary African art collections, which includes more than 3,000 pieces. he was brought up in Belgium and France by his parents: Augustin Dokolo, a bank owner, millionaire and collector of African arts, and his Danish wife Hanne Kruse.
He attended the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague in Paris from which he graduated; later he studied economics, commerce, and foreign languages at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. In 2002, he married Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, former President of Angola.
Isabel dos Santos Children
Isabel dos Santos is married to a Congolese art collector and a businessman sadika Dokolo, He is known as the owner of the most important contemporary African art collections, which includes more than 3,000 pieces. They have been married since 2002 and they are blessed with three children.
Isabel dos Santos Net Worth
Isabel dos Santos’ net worth is 2.1 billion USD as of 2020. A Forbes magazine article described in 2013 how Isabel acquired her wealth by taking stakes in companies doing business in Angola, suggesting that her wealth comes almost entirely from her family’s power and connections tearming her as “kleptocratic”.
Isabel dos Santos Investments in Portugal
Santos’ interests are in telecommunications, media, retail, finance, and the energy industry, both in Angola and in Portugal since 2008. In addition to her commercial interest in oil and diamonds, she also owns shares in the Angola cement company Nova Cimangola. Jadeium, a company held by Isabel acquired 4.918% of ZON Multimedia shares from Spain’s Telefonica.
She controls the Netherlands-based Unitel International Holdings BV, the Angolan businesswoman is the main shareholder of ZON Multimédia with 29% since July 2012. She is a member of the board of Angolan bank in Lisbon, Banco BIC Português, and through Santoro Holding, she holds 20% stakes at Banco Português de Investimento.
She has other major stakes with the Angolan state oil company Sonangol through their mutual European Law holding, based in the Netherlands, named Esperanza Holding, in Portuguese Galp Energia. Isabel a founding member and Board member of Banco BIC Português, which recently acquired Banco Português de Negócios, a nationalized bank.
Since November 2012 Isabel is a non-executive board member of ZON. In December 2012, Isabel dos Santos announced the invitation for a merger of ZON with Sonaecom, proved in March 2013 by the General Assembly.
Eight months later, after the green light from the Competition Authority, the merger of the two companies was formalized on August 27, 2013, with the transfer to ZOPT, a special purpose vehicle created to advance the operation which became the owner of more 50% of the capital of the new group, the shares that Isabel and Sonaecom hold on Zon and Optimus respectively.
There was a capital increase of ZOPT through contribution in kind from 50 to 716 million euros, while Sonaecom subscribed 358 million shares of the company, by delivering 81.8% of its stake in Optimus. The Angolan businesswoman, on her turn, subscribed exactly the same number of shares of ZOPT, through her holdings Kento and Unitel International, delivering 28.8% of the stake in ZON.
With this transfer of shareholdings in Optimus and Zon, Sonaecom and Isabel dos Santos became holders of over 50% stake in the merged company: Zon Optimus SGPS. On this occasion, a new strategy for the company was announced by Isabel dos Santos, with a multimarket vision.
On October 1, 2013, Isabel attended the first General Assembly of Zon Optimus. Isabel dos Santos’ investments in Portugal are in listed companies, which are therefore subject to official supervision of the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM).
In November 2014, she launched a takeover bid for Portugal Telecom, SGPS, S.A., valuing the firm’s shares at €1.35 a share, in what was seen as a rival bid to a previous €7 billion offer from Altice. Though the offer made by Altice is on PT Portugal, not on PT SGPS.On December 1, 2014, the Angolan businesswoman formally registered her offer at the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários, CMVM, in Portuguese).
In January 2017 Unitel, led by Isabel, officialized the purchase of 2% of Banco Fomento de Angola (BFA bank) from BPI for 28 million euros and now controls 51.9% of the bank’s capital. The operation was approved by sector regulators, namely the National Bank of Angola (BNA) in December 2016.
In February 2017 Isabel dos Santos decides to sell her position in Banco BPI, following the takeover bid launched by CaixaBank. All in all, Isabel arrived in 2009, stepped out in 2017 and won more than 80 million euros: Santos’ capital gain comes not only from the sale of the 18.5% holding on BPI but also from the dividends from 2008 and 2009, worth around 12.6 million euros.
Investments in Angola
With 51% control of Condis, Isabel dos signed a joint partnership with the Portuguese Sonae group in April 2011 for the development and operation of a retail trading company in Angola. The entry in Angola by the Portuguese group led by Paulo will be performed by the Continente (Angola), which plans to open the first supermarket by 2013 in Angola.
Focus on telecommunications
Isabel created Unitel in partnership with Portugal Telecom, after a tender process, she considered fair. Also through Unitel International Holding, a platform for Unitel investments where Portugal Telecom has no presence, she acquired the mobile operator T+, in Cape Verde and gained the license for the establishment of the second telecom operator in São Tomé and Príncipe.
Under this investment Isabel dos, Santos announced during a visit to São Tomé and Príncipe that Unitel will invest in education in the country to train engineers, managers, and other technicians and also focus on job creation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Isabel dos Santos
Who is Isabel?
Isabel is a well-known African richest businesswoman and the eldest child of Angola’s former president.
How old is Isabel?
She is 46 years old. born on 1st April 1973, Baku, Azerbaijan.
How tall is Isabel?
She has not shared her height with the public. Her height will be listed once we have it from a credible source.
Is Isabel married?
She is married to Sindika Dokolo who is a Congolese art collector and businessman. He owned one of the most important contemporary African art collections, which includes more than 3,000 pieces.
How much is Isabel’s worth?
She has an approximate net worth of $2.1 billion. This amount has been accrued from her leading roles in the business industry.
How much does Isabel make?
She has not revealed her total earnings in public, this section to be updated as soon as the information is available.
Where does Isabel live?
Because of security reasons, she has not shared her precise location of residence. We will immediately update this information if we get the location and images of her house.
Is Isabel dead or alive?
She is alive and in good health.
Where is Isabel now?
currently working as a businesswoman.
Isabel Dos Santos Unitel
Santos, Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of Angola’s former president, has been re-elected to the board of Unitel, the Angolan telecoms company. The decision comes after speculation that dos Santos could have been ousted in a shareholder dispute at the company that dominates Angola’s telecoms market.
Ownership of Unitel is split equally between Isabel, Brazilian telecoms company Oi, Angolan state oil company Sonangol and Angolan businessman and former government official Leopoldino do Nascimento. The three Angolan owners previously always voted as a block, but Sonangol recently indicated that it was looking to sell its stake and wanted to reduce the influence of dos Santos.
Isabel dos Santos House
Africa’s richest woman has been revealed as the owner of a £13million home in one of London’s most exclusive areas that have caused anguish for neighbors. Isabel, the daughter of Angola’s controversial former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, plans to demolish the house and rebuild it as an ‘iceberg’ mansion.
She has been given permission to raze the property and construct a four-story home in its place, complete with an underground swimming pool complex. Mrs dos Santos, 46, also plans to install a hot tub, wine cellar, massage room and walk-in safe underneath the sprawling home in Kensington, west London.
But the plans caused fury among wealthy neighbors, with one resident claiming the proposal would ‘create resentment, divisiveness and poor community feeling’. The revelation, unearthed by Finance Uncovered, that she owns the luxury home is likely to stoke widespread concerns about the origin of Mrs dos Santos’ wealth.
Despite presenting herself as a self-made entrepreneur who rubs shoulders with the A-list elite, opponents have described her as the beneficiary of kleptocracy in Africa. The majority of her nearly £2billion wealth was amassed while her father Jose Eduardo, 76, served as ruler of Angola for 38 years.
Isabel dos Santos Twitter
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