Portugal nationalises Efacec owned by Isabel dos Santos
The Portuguese government announced the nationalisation of the industrial company Efacec
Image for illustration purposes
Portugal: The Portuguese government announced the nationalisation of the industrial company Efacec as the assets of its main shareholder, the Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, were frozen due to the affair of “Luanda Leaks”.
The Council of Ministers made this decision after the group came to a dead end due to problems with its shareholders “since the Luanda Leaks affair last year,” explained Pedro Siza Vieira, the Minister of the Economy.
Wanting to re-privatise the group as soon as possible, the Government has already received several offers, said the Minister during a press conference.
The decree was promulgated by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who justifies this decision that is supposed to protect the national public interest of a group which employs around 2,500 employees.
Efacec Power Solutions is present in the energy, electric mobility, engineering, and transport sectors. The company, present in Africa as well, had generated a reveue of $486.7 M (€433.2 M) in 2018, according to the latest information available on the group’s website.
Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is suspected of large-scale embezzlement of public funds, estimated at $ 5 B. The billionaire denied these allegations, denouncing a “political” settlement of accounts.
In December, a civilian judge in Luanda ordered the freezing of the bank accounts and assets of Isabel dos Santos and her Congolese husband, Sindika Dokolo, in a number of Angolan companies.
A month later, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published an investigation, the “Luanda Leaks”, which brought the accusation against dos Santos on the basis of pirated documents of having emptied the country’s treasury.
In the aftermath, the Portuguese justice had in turn frozen her accounts and some of her assets in Portugal, where she had invested in several companies.
Source: Connaissance des Energies