Isabel Dos Santos-Linked Firm Loses $850 Million Port Claim

LUANDA (Bloomberg) — A Paris arbitration tribunal rejected an $850 million claim by Atlantic Ventures SA against the Angolan government for canceling a contract to build and operate a $1.5 billion port in the southwest African nation.

The company, in which Isabel dos Santos — Africa’s richest woman and the daughter of the oil-rich country’s former president — has a direct stake, must also pay the government’s 133 million kwanzas ($232,000) tribunal fees, the Presidency said in an emailed statement.

Atlantic Ventures won the contract to build the Port of Dande, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north the capital, Luanda, in September 2017, shortly before Jose Eduardo Dos Santos stepped down as president after 38 years in charge.

Isabel faces several civil and criminal cases in which the Angolan government claims more than $5 billion, according to the prosecutor general’s office. She denies any wrongdoing and says the allegations are politically motivated.