Angola says to launch sovereign wealth fund

By Henrique Almeida

LUANDA, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Angola is preparing to launch a sovereign wealth fund to invest the oil-rich nation's wealth abroad and protect it from the global financial crisis, according to a presidential statement issued on Thursday.

"The aim of the fund is to maximize the nation's financial reserves and to use these reserves in areas that are seen as strategic to development," the statement said.

It added that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos had set up a commission to lay the groundwork for the launch of the Fundo Soberano Angolano (FSA) on Thursday and that the fund would enable Angola to expand its economic interests abroad.

Sovereign wealth funds are investment funds controlled by national governments.

Angola has in the past used state-owned oil firm Sonangol as a type of sovereign fund to buy shares in foreign companies, like a 10 percent stake in Portugal's largest listed bank Millennium bcp (BCP.LS).

Angola rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer and is the newest member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The country is recovering from a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

Government coffers have been flush with cash since the end of the war, due largely to the rising price of oil, raking in an estimated record $41 billion last year from oil exports, according to JP Morgan.

The country's vast offshore reserves have attracted billions in foreign investment from Western companies and state-run companies from China and others in the developing world.

But concerns about the fiscal health of petroleum producers have been stoked by oil prices falling from over $147 a barrel in July to about a third of that price on fears of a global recession.

Angola's economy has so far remained robust. The government expects the economy to grow 11.8 percent in 2009, down from a projected 15 percent this year. (Reporting by Henrique Almeida; Editing by Toni Reinhold)