Angola's biggest bank BAI eyes S.African market

By Henrique Almeida

LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola's Banco Africano de Investimentos (BAI), the nation's biggest bank in terms of deposits, plans to open a representative office in South Africa this year in a bid to tap into Africa's biggest economy.

BAI chief executive Jose de Lima Massano told Reuters the firm planned to open an office in South Africa to evaluate the banking sector's potential for growth, and business opportunities between the two countries.

"We are working with monetary authorities in South Africa and our intention is for the whole process to be concluded by the end of the year," he said on the sidelines of a banking conference in Luanda.

"We should be given the go-ahead to open an office by the end of the year."

He did not say when he expected BAI to operate as a full-service bank in South Africa.

BAI is just one of several Angolan banks that have begun expanding abroad. It also has operations in Portugal, Cape Verde and several business partnerships in Sao Tome and Principe and Brazil.

Asked if he was interested in buying troubled Portuguese bank BPN, which the Portuguese government recently put up for sale, Massano said: "We prefer to expand our international operations organically, for now."

BAI's local rival Banco Internacional de Credito (BIC), the country's fourth biggest commercial bank in terms of deposits, said on November 5 it was interested in bidding for Banco Portugues de Negocios (BPN) and signalled it was not the only bank interested in BPN's privatisation.