Investec and UniCredit have closed a €225million facility to finance the building of three hospitals in Angola, supported by two export credit agencies (ECAs).
UniCredit arranged 85% of the financing, supported by Italy’s ECA, Sace. Investec arranged financing for the remaining 15% under a commercial loan agreement, supported by the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC), a spokesperson tells GTR.
Investec and UniCredit are mandated lead arrangers for the financing. The Angolan finance ministry is the borrower.
The hospitals are expected to be completed within five years and will be built in partnership with healthcare facility provider Vamed. They comprise a 200-bed hospital in Huambo and 100-bed facilities in both Luena and Cabinda.
Investec says €14mn in South African exports are “envisaged to be realised through the intra-African trade transaction”.
“This was our third major transaction with ECIC in recent times, and we were also pleased to work with the DTIC [Department of Trade, Industry and Competition] in opening up export opportunities for South Africa,” says Brian Irvine, global head of export and agency finance at Investec.
The project will “strengthen ties between Southern African countries through the power of trade and investment”, adds ECIC’s acting chief executive, Mandisi Nkuhlu.
Dorivaldo Teixeira, director general of public debt management at the Angolan Ministry of Finance says that the hospitals will help Angola address the challenge of providing access to high-quality health centres and managing the outbreak of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, cholera and zika.
“In addition, the shortage of qualified personnel will also be addressed through Vamed’s commitment to a two-year joint hospital management process, once each facility is built, working with the hospital teams to ensure the facilities are operated optimally,” Teixeira says.
In 2021, Investec led on a deal for two hospital projects in Ghana worth €215mn, backed by ECIC and the Dutch and Swedish ECAs.
