Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, has had her assets frozen by the Angolan government. The freeze is designed to help recover more than $1bn in state loans prosecutors say Ms dos Santos has illgally received. Her assets include the Candando supermarket chain and the Sodiba brewery.
The move comes as Angolan President João Lourenço seeks to dismantle the legacy of the 38 year presidency of José Eduardo dos Santos, father of Isabel dos Santos. For her part, Ms dos Santos has warned that thousands of jobs are being put at stake because of the freeze, which impacts her stakes Banco de Fomento Angola and Banco BIC, its biggest telecoms company Unitel), as well as the Candando supermarket chain and Sodiba brewery.
Angola has been in recession since 2014, when oil prices fell. As such, João Lourenço is seeking to deliver punishing reforms under an IMF relief package, reduce dependency on the oil sector and improve the prospects for much needed foreign investment. His moves to reform what is widely seen as a private sector riddled with crony capitalism is part of those programme.
Candando was founded in 2015 and opened its first store in May 2016. It has six stores, all in and around Luanda. Ms dos Santos had partnered with Portuguese retailer Sonae in 2011 to launch the Continente hypermarket chain in Angola. But the partnership never produced a store and in 2015 dos Santos hired two of the Portuguese executives working for Sonae on the project, leading to Sonae withdrawing from the partnership.
Candando’s sale or exit will not have a major impact on the Angolan supermarket sector – there are several domestic supermarket operators, including Kibabo, Kero and Intermarket, capable of taking over a high end hypermarket chain. Some of the assets might also be of interest to market leader Shoprite, which has 28 stores in Angola.
Sodiba (Sociedade de Distribuição de Bebidas de Angola) owns the Luandina beer brand, launched in 2016, and also produces Sagres under licence in Angola since 2017. Sodiba has an annual production capacity of 1.44m hectolitres but has struggled to gain market share. Its difficulties provide a boost to Castel Group, owner of market leader Companhia União de Cervejas de Angola (the former state-owned brewer), the Chinese owned Lowenda Brewery Company, and Refriango, a domestic soft drinks manufacturer and brewer.
