"The statement issued by Unitel officially confirms Vidatel's position, insofar as Unitel is indebted to Vidatel and also confirms the non-existence of any unjustified transfers," points out Isabel dos Santos' company, in a note issued on Friday.
In the document, Vidatel "welcomes" the "confirmation by Unitel SA of its debt of around 200 million euros to Vidatel and that the existence of this credit in favour of Vidatel is recorded in the Management Report and Accounts for the financial year 2019, which were audited and approved at the General Meeting held on 27 July 2020".
Vidatel adds that the credits registered by Unitel as due to it "result from past debts of dividends and unpaid interest" by the telecommunications operator between 2012 and 2018, "and from the shareholder Vidatel's shareholder loan agreement with Unitel, which ended in 2016" and which has not yet been returned.
In Vidatel's statement, the company 'acknowledges that the new board of directors [of Unitel] has made efforts to reduce Unitel's debt to its shareholders' and that Unitel 'has made several payments to all shareholders except Vidatel'.
Vidatel recalls that under the Angolan Companies Act, 'the partner's credit to its share of the profits is due 30 days from the date of the resolution approving the profit distribution' and that the company's board of directors 'must ensure that all shareholders are treated equally'.
In a communiqué issued on Thursday, Unitel acknowledged that it has dividends to pay to the shareholders, including Vidatel, but stated that the reasons for not transferring these amounts are foreign to it.
"As duly recorded" in the accounts approved this week, the company had, as of 31 December 2019, "a balance of dividends and associated interest payable to shareholders in the total amount of 622,908 million kwanzas, of which 89,164,341,798 kwanzas are payable to the shareholder Vidatel", indicates the company.
The telecommunications operator stated that "the reasons for the non-transfer of the referred dividends and interests to Vidatel are foreign to Unitel" and recalled the restrictions arising from the seizure order present in a ruling issued by the Luanda Provincial Court in December 2019.
In the same communiqué, the telecommunications operator states that "there is no shareholder Vidatel's loan agreement with Unitel".
On Monday, Isabel dos Santos assured that Unitel SA "has debts to Vidatel Ltd, whose existence is due to reasons solely attributable" to the telecommunications operator.
In question is, she claimed, the failure to repay, in 2016, the loan that Unitel obtained from Vidatel, a debt that 'is duly recorded in Unitel's audited accounts, certified by an external auditor, and recognised and approved by the shareholders' general meeting for several years'.
Unitel's board of directors, which began operating in May 2019, says it "has worked to ensure that shareholders are treated equally before the law" and that it "has provided all relevant information to its shareholders".
The operator also adds that in the accounts approved on July 27, it recorded that it has a "receivable value equivalent to US$ 405 million from Unitel International Holdings BV., a company without participation of Unitel and held by engineer Isabel dos Santos".
According to the company, this value refers to "loans granted by Unitel in the years 2012 and 2013".
"Such amounts have not yet been paid and Unitel's current board of directors has acted in order to seek the due payment of interest and principal on such contracts", the note stresses.
Until January this year, Unitel was controlled by four shareholders, each with 25 per cent: PT Ventures (owned by the Brazilian company Oi), the state-owned oil company Sonangol, Vidatel (owned by Isabel dos Santos) and Geni (owned by General Leopoldino "Dino" Fragoso do Nascimento).
On 26 January, Sonangol purchased PT Ventures in full, for one billion dollars, becoming the operator's largest shareholder.
In December last year, the Luanda court decreed the preventive seizure of accounts and shareholdings of Isabel dos Santos, her husband Sindika Dokolo and her manager Mário Filipe Moreira Leite da Silva, former chairman of the Board of Directors of Banco de Fomento de Angola (BFA).
Among the companies that were the target of the seizure of holdings is Unitel.
