July 21 – Sace, the export credit insurance and financial group, is once again in Africa. Having secured funding for €164 million, with BNP Paribas CIB as Sole Structuring Bank and Agent Bank, in favor of the Angolan Ministry of Finance. The investment will be used to complete construction of the last section of the Luanda-Soyo (N’zeto-Soyo) highway, entrusted to the Italian CMC Ravenna within the governmental program to develop links between the capital and the north of the country. The project, worth a total of € 250 million, involves the construction of 44.8 km of dual carriageway in each direction (with 500 km planned in total). The northern part of the country is rich in oil and thus plays a strategic role in the country’s development. The transaction confirms CMC’s long-standing commitment in Angola, and its decade-long experience in major infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Mozambique. The Ravenna-based cooperative, founded in 1901, had its 2013 turnover in southern Africa amount to €355 million, with total volume amounting to €1 billion. The funding announcement was made today, as a System mission landed in Angola. For Sace, the local market offers important business opportunities in various sectors, also thanks to the new government’s commitment to invest in infrastructure development, mining, agribusiness and tourism in the country. Sace expects that, within the next four years, Italian exports will grow at an annual average rate of 8%, with even higher performances in key areas such as mechanical engineering (+8.5%) and electrical equipment (+9%), and in private consumption, which will score an average growth of 12.1% over the next four years.
