Isabel Jose dos Santos, the entrepreneurial daughter of the Angolan president, has acquired Telefonica’s 4.918% stake in Portuguese cableco Zon Multimedia, becoming its largest shareholder.
Zon said in a statement that Jadeium, an Amsterdam-based…
Isabel Jose dos Santos, the entrepreneurial daughter of the Angolan president, has acquired Telefonica’s 4.918% stake in Portuguese cableco Zon Multimedia, becoming its largest shareholder.
Zon said in a statement that Jadeium, an Amsterdam-based company of which dos Santos is the controlling shareholder, has signed an agreement to acquire 15,200,427 shares, equal to 4.918% of the share capital and voting rights.
Dos Santos already holds a 10% stake in the Lisbon-based cableco via Kento Holding, which she directly controls, taking her total Zon shareholding to 14.918% plus voting rights.
According to a Reuters report citing sources close to the deal, dos Santos paid €2.50 per share, representing a total of more than €38m.
The daughter of Angola’s long-serving leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos made her first foray into the Portuguese market earlier this week, acquiring a 9% stake in the nation’s third largest bank, Banco BPI.
Zon amended its shareholder rules in January, removing a restriction that limited shareholders to exercising a maximum of 10% of the company’s voting rights. The move attracted speculation of a possible merger with local media/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.
Spanish incumbent Telefonica reduced its stake in Zon from 5.46% to 5% in late March. The telco reported net financial debt of €56.3bn for 2011 which, this year, it has acted to reduce.
According to the Zon website, the other shareholders with a 5% stake or more are Caixa Geral de Depositos, which holds 10.88%, Banco BPI, which holds 7.55%, and Espirito Santo Irmaos, which holds 5%.
