Angola to decide on $1 bln JPMorgan deal by November, says finance official

By Karin Strohecker and Libby George

LONDON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Angola will decide by November whether to roll over its $1 billion total return swap from JPMorgan, or potentially raise the money on international capital markets, a senior debt official told Reuters.

JPMorgan and Angola agreed in December a $1 billion, one-year derivative contract known as a total return swap, backed by $1.9 billion in government dollar bonds, which will expire at the end of the year.

"We have some options," Dorivaldo Teixeira, General Director of the Public Debt Management Unit at Angola's finance ministry, told Reuters on the sidelines of investor meetings in London.

If market conditions were right, Angola could issue to raise the funds, repay partially, or extend the current arrangement.

"It depends on the cost," he said. While he said the market conditions for smaller, riskier issuers were improving with yields "going in the right direction", he noted that the JPMorgan facility cost was lower than the country's eurobonds and "if I can extend it, probably I will use it."