LISBON (AFP) — Oil-rich Angola, which survived a quarter century of civil war to transform itself into an African El Dorado for keen investors, has begun investing profits in Europe, starting with the former colonial power Portugal.
Angola has been steadily reconstructing since civil strife finally ended in 2002, and is now fast becoming a world player in oil production as sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria.
Since 2004 its annual growth rate has passed 15 percent and it holds more than 11 billion dollars (seven billion euros) in foreign currency reserves.
The southwest African country was last year producing 1.8 million barrels a day.
"As the financial situation grows more comfortable it's only normal that Angola should turn to the Portuguese market to invest some of its financial surplus," said Jose Tavares Moreira, a consultant with BAI Europa bank in Lisbon whose main shareholder is Angola's state-owned oil giant Sonangol.
With an area of 1,246,700 square kilometres (481,321 square miles) Angola is nearly twice the size of the US state of Texas, or five times the area of Britain.
Its economy has undergone a transformation from the chaos of a quarter century of war to being the second fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the fastest in the world.
Normalisation of relations between Angola and Portugal date from 2003 with the signature of an accord allowing the former colony to adjust its debt. Reciprocity has now become the watchword of bilateral relations.
Portugal is a favoured market for the opening up of the Angolan economy, said Basilio Horta, president of Portugal's Investment and Foreign Trade Agency (AICEP).
At the beginning of this month, a new bank called BIC Portugal opened its doors here in Lisbon with mainly Angolan private capital and the declared aim of serving as "gateway to Angolan investment in Europe."
Angola has been building up investment in Portugal for some years mainly via Sonangol, starting with 733,000 euros in 1999 and climbing to 17.6 million in 2006, according to the AICEP.
BAI Europa consultant Jose Tavares Moreira does not yet see all this as large-scale capital movement, but stresses that the new Angolan investment upsurge in Portugal is above all the result of Sonangol's stake in Portugal's main private bank BCP.
At the start of this year, Millennium BCP launched a capital increase of 1.3 billion euros, enabling Sonangol to increase its stake in the bank from five to seven percent, according to business press reports.
The Angolan company also has a 45 percent stake in Amorim Energia, which in turn controls 33.3 percent of the Portuguese oil company Galp Energia.
The Portugese press frequently refers to an expected Sonangol interest in Energias de Portugal (EDP) et Portugal Telecom (PT), two flagship companies on the Lisbon stock market. But Sonangol chief executive Manuel Vicente has ruled this out for the immediate future.
On the other hand the Angolan energy giant could be in line to buy up Portuguese assets invested in Angola's financial system. Angola has been in negotiations with two Portuguese banks BPI and BCP to get them to sell 49.9 percent of BFA (Banco de Fomento) and Millennium Angola respectively to local investors.
Meanwhile Portuguese exports to Angola, Portugal's sixth largest foreign market, expanded strongly last year by 39 percent to 1.4 billion euros. And in 2006 direct Portuguese investment in the former colony was 330 million euros.
Growth has been almost entirely driven by rising oil production which surpassed 1.4 million barrels per day in late 2005 and was expected to grow to two million barrels.
Control of the oil industry is consolidated in Sonangol Group, a conglomerate owned by the Angolan government. Angola joined OPEC in 2006.
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