Lisbon, Oct. 13, 2024 (Lusa) - The Angolan state will receive "nothing" from the sale of Efacec and is unlikely to benefit from the sale of EuroBic bank, the former assets of Isabel dos Santos, which are the subject of legal proceedings, Cedesa, an organisation that studies Angolan affairs, said on Sunday.
Cedesa said "Efacec's situation is straightforward. Nothing will be returned to the Angolan state because the company had a negative net worth when it was nationalised" by the Portuguese state.
This conclusion is contained in the latest report by the group of academics entitled "The problem of recovering Isabel dos Santos" assets in Portugal", to which Lusa had access on Sunday.
But it's not the only one. In the same document, the group of academics also argues that it will be difficult for the Angolan state to obtain any benefit from the sale of Isabel dos Santos' majority stake in Eurobic to Spain's Abanca.
"The essential conclusion reached is that the recovery of Isabel dos Santos" assets in relation to Eurobic may happen in the long term, but it is very fragile," they say.
With regard to Efacec, Cedesa's analysts believe that, as the company was nationalised in 2020, "there will only be a right to compensation according to the value of the respective rights, assessed in the light of [the company's] asset and financial situation on the date of entry into force of the nationalisation act".
In calculating the compensation to be awarded to the holders of the nationalised shares, "the value of the respective rights is determined taking into account the actual net assets," they add.
However, according to a recent report by the Portuguese Court of Auditors, Efacec required "public funding of €484 million, with the risk of rising to €564 million", so "it is easy to conclude that the value at the time of the nationalisation [of the company] was negative", they said.
"There is, therefore, "nothing to compensate the company owners [Isabel dos Santos] or to whom it owes under any criminal proceedings [the Angolan state]," they conclude.
Concerning EuroBic, Cedesa recalls that when Isabel dos Santos' stake in the Portuguese bank EuroBic was sold to the Spanish bank Abanca, companies were identified that had the bank's former shareholder and daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos as the ultimate beneficiary, such as Santoro Financial Holding, SGPS, S.A., with 25% of the bank's share capital, and Finisantoro Holding Limited, with 17.5% of the bank's capital, totalling 42.5%.
These holdings were subject to "a preventive seizure decreed in various Portuguese criminal proceedings", he emphasised.
In addition, according to the public information available, "the amount received by Isabel dos Santos for the sale to Abanca, €127.5 million, was seized under the previous terms of participation, although the exact terms are not entirely clear".
Therefore, concerning the possible recovery of this asset, the report emphasises that "preventive seizure is a measure of criminal procedure, which seeks to ensure what payments the defendant may incur in the future", namely in relation to monetary penalties, costs of the proceedings or other debts to the state related to the crime.
It is, therefore, a provisional measure that can be revoked by a judge or declared extinct. And "what is certain" for Cedesa "is that this seizure does not factually guarantee that, in the end, the Angolan state will receive any of these amounts, either because the criminal proceedings in Portugal are not concluded, they lapse or even because Isabel dos Santos is acquitted," it concludes.
For this reason, he said that "the amount will only be definitively removed from Isabel dos Santos" sphere in the event of a final and unappealable judgement in the cases above, which will probably take ten years or more".
He emphasised that if the cases are closed due to the "statute of limitations, acquittal or closure," this would mean "the sums would be handed over to Isabel dos Santos."
Even if Isabel dos Santos is convicted, as these proceedings are taking place in Portugal, "the costs associated with them will first be reimbursed by the Portuguese state".
In short, "effectively, there is a legal weakness in the measures taken by the authorities of both countries in relation to Isabel dos Santos, which could have the consequence that, over time, there will be no benefits from all this judicial action, at least for Angola," concludes Cedesa.
In fact, for the group of analysts, in most cases, the recovery of Isabel dos Santos' assets in Portugal “is distant” and depends on “legal vicissitudes” and only the activation of the so-called “confiscation without judicial conviction”, provided for in the Portuguese Penal Code, could lead to the appropriation of the assets of the daughter of the former president of Angola by the state.
ATR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
