In a press release sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), Sonaecom, which holds 50 per cent of the share capital of ZOPT SGPS, states that "it was informed by its subsidiary of the communication received from the Central Court of Criminal Investigation in Lisbon of the preventive seizure of 26.075 per cent of the share capital" of the telecommunications operator NOS.
This is "equivalent to half of the share capital of NOS held by ZOPT and, indirectly, by Unitel International Holdings, BV and Kento Holding Limited", controlled by Isabel dos Santos, advances Sonaecom.
ZOPT is 50 per cent owned by Sonaecom and the remaining half by Isabel dos Santos.
"Under the terms of this decision, the shares seized are deprived of the right to vote and the right to receive dividends, the latter to be deposited at Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA at the court order", adds Sonaecom.
The company assumes "full cooperation with the authorities", but contests the manner in which the decision was carried out, as it considers that it does not fulfil the objective intended by the court itself and penalises Sonaecom and NOS.
"Sonaecom will take the appropriate steps with the judicial authorities to lift the seizure, not least because, in its opinion, the purposes of this measure can be better achieved by others with no impact on third parties", it states in the press release.
"The other half of ZOPT's shareholding in NOS, corresponding to the same percentage of 26.075 per cent - and which, at least in line with the criteria used by the court, embodies the 50 per cent held in ZOPT by Sonaecom - was not subject to the seizure, nor were its inherent rights subject to any limitation", he adds.
"Sonaecom assumes, as always, an attitude of full cooperation with the judicial authorities, but cannot comply with a decision that, by violating the basic rule that a public limited company (in this case ZOPT) is not responsible for the debts of its shareholders, seriously harms the interests of ZOPT and Sonaecom, which are totally unrelated to the judicial process in question, and is liable to affect the regular functioning of the General Meeting of NOS, one of the most important listed companies in the Portuguese capital market", he points out.
It also considers "that the deprivation of voting rights, which the court considers 'inherent' to the seizure of half of ZOPT's position in the NOS, is null and void, to the extent that it goes against the express legal rule that the seizure of a quota, such as attachment, does not deprive the respective holder of the voting rights, which is obviously valid for the seizure of shares, as acknowledged by the jurisprudence of our courts, including the Supreme Court of Justice", refers to Sonaecom, citing the judgment of 29/01/2019 available at www. dgsi.pt.
Furthermore, such "deprivation of voting rights is all the more singular and incomprehensible given that the Angolan court itself did not associate it with the seizure of shares in Angolan companies that it had decreed in the same case", Sonaecom stresses.
This court decision does not prevent Isabel dos Santos from receiving dividends or from selling her holding in ZOPT, since it is not seized.
On 19 January, the International Investigative Journalism Consortium revealed over 715,000 files under the name 'Luanda Leaks', detailing alleged financial schemes of Isabel dos Santos and her husband, which have allowed them to withdraw money from the Angolan public purse through tax havens.
