Angola: Isabel dos Santos expands empire

President José Eduardo dos Santos’ billionaire elder daughter Isabel has added to her portfolio with a controlling stake in Portuguese engineering company Efacec, ten years after she bought 38.3% in Portugal’s Galp Energia in partnership with Portuguese businessman Américo Amorim. Isabel dos Santos, whose fortune was estimated at $3bn last year by Forbes magazine, established the 50/50 Winterfell joint venture with the recently created Empresa Nacional de Distribuição de Electricidade (ENDE) in order to purchase foreign assets. Isabel dos Santos and Winterfell bought a 65% stake in Efacec Power Solutions at the beginning of June from two Portuguese companies, Grupo José de Mello SGPS and Têxtil Manuel Gonçalves.