ABU DHABI/LONDON: Angola's sovereign wealth fund is teaming up with ​asset management firm Gemcorp Capital to launch a $500-million Africa-focused infrastructure fund, according to a joint statement on Tuesday.

The fund ⁠aims to make investments across the continent to get more private-sector cash into critical minerals, water, food security, energy ⁠transition and ‌other areas.

"We are seeding some capital into this initiative... attracting other investors, particularly the (Gulf) players, into the vast opportunities that we have in the continent," Armando Manuel, chair of ⁠Angolan sovereign wealth fund Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), told Reuters.

FSDEA will make an initial $50-million investment, which could increase to $200 million, while London-based Gemcorp will contribute up to $50 million.

The firms are seeking the remaining capital from global investors wanting to diversify from "crowded" financial markets in the U.S. and Europe.

Gemcorp, which ⁠focuses on emerging markets, said it ​would use its own platform and staff in Africa to manage the projects.

"The level of appetite that we've witnessed, whether ‍it is pension schemes all the way in Nordic Europe, to investors in GCC to international institutional capital as well as family offices, ​is vast," Asad Hajiyev, Gemcorp senior executive officer in Abu Dhabi, said.

Gemcorp has been investing in Angola for a decade, and has also invested in renewables, water sanitation projects and power transmission on the continent.

The new fund - called the Pan-African Infrastructure Fund - will be based in Abu Dhabi, in part to tap into growing investments the Gulf region has made into Africa in recent years.

FSDEA currently has roughly $4 billion in assets under management, according to GlobalSWF.

The oil- and diamond-producing nation created FSDEA in 2011 with $5 billion, chaired by José Filomeno dos Santos, son of the then-president. The fund was plagued by poor investments and complaints ⁠about opacity. In 2020, an Angolan court sentenced dos Santos to ‌five years in prison for fraud and embezzlement.

Manuel said FSDEA was committed to improve governance and transparency and would "continue to spread the portfolio of the fund," beyond the current core holdings that he ‌said are ⁠heavily concentrated in securities, bonds, shares and derivatives, mostly in U.S., European and Asian markets.

"We have this responsibility to ⁠look to the continent," he said. (Reporting by Libby George; Editing by Andrew Heavens)