Angola loan likely approved next week: IMF

LONDON (Reuters) - An International Monetary Fund loan for Angola is likely to be approved next week, an IMF official said on Friday, as the country also prepares to launch a Eurobond.

"We are close to approving a loan agreement, probably next week," Sean Nolan, senior adviser at the IMF, told an Africa conference organised by Thomson Reuters and the Emerging Markets Traders Association, speaking via videolink.

Nolan did not give a figure for the size of the loan, but the IMF last month recommended a 27-month $1.3 billion loan programme for Angola, which, if approved, would be one of the largest agreed with an African country.

Investors are focusing on Angola after the oil-producing country said earlier this month it planned a debut Eurobond totalling $4 billion in the first half of next year, and was looking to get a sovereign credit rating.

JPMorgan has been appointed as lead manager of the bond, which is expected to have two $2 billion tranches.

"One of the two tranches may happen while it's still unrated...it's a key milestone of the appetite for African risk," Michael Fuchs, a senior Africa economist at the World Bank, told the conference.

Angola has relied on China for more than $5 billion in oil-backed loans since the end of its civil war in 2002, but has recently turned to the West to bolster its finances, in particular after the decline last year in oil prices.

Several African countries were considering issuing Eurobonds before the global financial crisis hit but put their plans on hold.

Kenya's central bank governor Njuguna Ndung'u earlier told the conference the country planned to launch its debut sovereign bond next year.