Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos has agreed to buy an extra 10.96% stake in Portuguese DTH platform and cableco Zon Multimedia, boosting her total shareholding to 28.8%.
Dos Santos’ Amsterdam-based company Jadeium has signed an agreement to acquire…
Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos has agreed to buy an extra 10.96% stake in Portuguese DTH platform and cableco Zon Multimedia, boosting her total shareholding to 28.8%.
Dos Santos’ Amsterdam-based company Jadeium has signed an agreement to acquire nearly 34 million shares from state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depositos.
Caixa is required to sell non-strategic holdings as part of Portugal’s €78bn bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The purchase will take place by 2 July, according to a Zon statement. While the DTH operator did not disclose financial details, Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negocios cited a source close to dos Santos as saying she has agreed to pay €2.60 per share, equalling to a total of €88.09m (US$110.7m).
Dos Santos now owns 18.8% of Zon via Jadeium, which is the company’s largest shareholder, and 10% via Malta-based Kento Holding, which also has a stake in Portugal Telecom.
The daughter of Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos Santos, Isabel dos Santos has recently built her stake in Zon.
In early May, she bought Telefonica’s 4.9% stake in the company and, earlier this month, reportedly acquired a further 2.82% from Portuguese company Cinveste. She has investments in several Portuguese companies, including a stake in the nation’s third largest bank, Banco BPI.
Analysts have speculated dos Santos may eventually seek to merge Zon with local media and telecoms group Sonaecom.
Vodafone Portugal CEO Antonio Coimbra has also said previously that a merger between his company and Zon would make theoretical sense as it would create an operator that could compete with Portugal Telecom.
Other Zon investors with stakes of 5% or more are Banco BPI, which owns 7.55%, and Holy Spirit Brothers, which owns 5%.
In late May, Zon had announced plans to launch a public bond offering with an initial value of up to €100m (US$125.9m).
