Angolan Sovereign Wealth Fund to Invest $180 Million in Deep Sea Port

Reuters

Angola's sovereign wealth fund will invest $180 million in the country's first deep sea water port in Cabinda, the fund's chairman Jose Filomeno dos Santos said on Tuesday.

The sovereign fund, known by its Portuguese acronym FSDEA, is making the investment from its $1.1 billion infrastructure fund, with the first phase of the port's construction expected to be finished by the end of 2017.

"We are giving some support to kickstart the project," Dos Santos said. "It might be used as a transhipment hub because it's a deep sea port and one of the few in the region."

Construction at the port of Cabinda, located in a heavily guarded territory that accounts for half the oil output from Africa's top petroleum producer, started in 2016 with costs totaling around $700 million.

The expectation is that the investment will yield a return of over 10 percent on an annualized basis over an investment horizon of 10 years.

Dos Santos said facilities at the port would include a duty free area and a ship repair yard, which the region does not currently have. Cabinda will also give access to the markets of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Around two years after the port has been in operation it is envisaged that other investors will be invited to participate in the port concession, which is expected to run for 30 years, he said.

The fund had $4.755 billion under management at end-September 2016, up from $4.56 billion at the end of the first quarter.

(Reporting by Claire Milhench and Karin Strohecker, editing by Ed Osmond)