The Fund for Export Development in Africa (“FEDA”), Afreximbank’s impact investment subsidiary, has announced an investment into Cabinda Oil Refinery, an integrated modular oil refining platform in Angola being developed by Gemcorp Holdings (“Gemcorp”) in Joint Venture with Sonangol.

Cabinda Oil Refinery is a 60,000 barrel per day (bpd) high conversion refinery, with a first phase of 30,000 bpd, in the Cabinda Province of Angola, one of Africa’s largest crude oil producers. The Refinery is targeted at processing Angola’s crude oil into a variety of petroleum products including diesel, gasoline, naphtha, and jet fuel for both local and export consumption. Upon completion, Cabinda Oil Refinery will double Angola’s refining capacity, enabling the country and the wider region to gradually reduce their reliance on the importation of refined petroleum products.

With this investment, FEDA confirms its commitment to support Africa’s industrialization and economic development, while ensuring environmental sustainability. The transaction will support Angola’s energy transition by enabling the production of cleaner, high value refined products to cater for up to 20% of the domestic demand, as well reducing emissions by decreasing the need of transportation for both the exportation of locally produced crude oil and the importation of refined products.

FEDA’s investment comes shortly after Gemcorp, Afreximbank and Africa Finance Corporation successfully led the debt raising of a $335 million project financing facility in July 2023. With this additional investment from FEDA, the Afreximbank Group demonstrates its unique ability to invest across the capital structure and therefore provide unparalleled support to the development of critical infrastructure across the continent.

Atanas Bostandjiev, CEO of Gemcorp Holdings commented: “Gemcorp is delighted to be playing a key role in the construction of the Cabinda Oil Refinery in partnership with Sonangol, Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, and FEDA. Angola is an oil rich country on a mission to leverage its resources for the socioeconomic benefit of its people. Once completed, the refinery will go a long way in unlocking the nation’s economic potential as it becomes more self-reliant for its energy needs. Gemcorp’s investment in the project will play a significant part in realising this ambition.”

Marlène Ngoyi, CEO of FEDA, commented: “Our investment in Cabinda Oil Refinery demonstrates FEDA’s commitment to drive industrialization and import substitution on the continent. The Project is central to Angola’s plans to drive further local value addition of its crude resources, allowing the country to meet its refined petroleum needs as well as creating export opportunities. The Refinery further contributes to a reduction in greenhouse gases by reducing the need to transport crude and refined products to and from Africa. The investment speaks to FEDA’s mandate of providing capital with a focus on delivering development impact in diverse sectors in Africa which are critical to driving industrialization and value-added export development.”

About Gemcorp Holdings

Gemcorp Holdings Limited (“Gemcorp”) is the developer and majority shareholder of Cabinda Oil Refinery. Gemcorp is an independent investment management firm focused on emerging markets and regulated by the FCA in the U.K. The firm has facilitated over US$7 billion worth of investments in public and private credit and equity transactions since inception. The firm is looking to invest at least $10 billion in Africa over the next decade, mainly in the form of debt transactions in partnership with other institutional investors, alongside private equity investments on a selective basis.

About FEDA

Headquartered in Kigali (Rwanda), the Fund for Export Development in Africa (“FEDA”) is the impact investment subsidiary of the African Export-Import Bank (“Afreximbank” or the “Bank”) set up to provide equity, quasi-equity, and debt capital to finance the multi-billion-dollar funding gap (particularly in equity) needed to transform the Trade sector in Africa. FEDA pursues a multi-sector investment strategy along the intra-African trade, value-added export development, and manufacturing value chain which includes financial services, technology, consumer and retail goods, manufacturing, transport & logistics, agribusiness, as well as ancillary trade enabling infrastructure such as industrial parks. FEDA is a $670 million fund (First Close) with the ambition to raise a total of $1.3 billion over the coming months.

About Afreximbank

Afreximbank is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. For 30 years, the Bank has been deploying innovative structures to deliver financing  solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa. A stalwart supporter of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Afreximbank has launched a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) as the payment and settlement platform to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. Working with the AfCFTA Secretariat and the AU, the Bank is setting up a US$10 billion Adjustment Fund to support countries to effectively participate in the AfCFTA. At the end of 2022, Afreximbank’s total assets and guarantees stood at over US$31 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to US$5.2 billion. The Bank disbursed more than US$86 billion between 2016 and 2022. Afreximbank has investment grade ratings assigned by GCR (international scale) (A), Moody’s (Baa1), Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) (A-) and Fitch (BBB). Afreximbank has evolved into a group entity comprising the Bank, its impact fund subsidiary called the Fund for Export Development Africa (FEDA), and its insurance management subsidiary, AfrexInsure, (together, “the Group”).