Angolan Fund Says China Exim Will Lend $600 Million for New Port

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Export-Import Bank of China is lending Angola as much as $600 million for the construction of a deep-sea port in the northern enclave of Cabinda, according to Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the chairman of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund.

The first phase of the port, which will include a 630-meter (2,070-foot) container terminal, ship-repair facilities, warehouses, a power plant and a free-trade zone, will be completed in the second half of this year, Dos Santos said in an interview in London on Tuesday. The work is being carried out by a Chinese construction company.

Fundo Soberano de Angola, the wealth fund known by its Portuguese acronymFSDEA, is investing $180 million from its infrastructure fund in return for a 50 percent stake in Caio Porto, the company operating the project, Dos Santos said. The other half is owned by Angolan investors whom Dos Santos declined to identify.

The port, which is surrounded by the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, will boost trade in the area and lead to the creation of 20,000 jobs, said Dos Santos, who is the son of Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Angola, which vies with Nigeria to be Africa’s biggest oil producer, has been struggling to cope with the impact of crude prices that tumbled more than 50 percent since mid-2014. The FSDEA, managed by Zug, Switzerland-based Quantum Global Investment Management Ltd., is designed to generate new sources of revenue as the country reduces its reliance on income from the commodity, which accounts for almost all of the country’s foreign-exchange earnings.

FSDEA’s assets remained little changed at $4.8 billion in September, with $1.18 billion invested in fixed-income securities, the fund said in a statement.