The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) expects a UN unfreezing of assets by the end of the year to actively manage its $70 billion in assets for the first time in more than a decade, LIA’s Chairman has told Reuters.
LIA has been under a UN asset freeze since the 2011 revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Chairman Ali Mahmoud said the authority is confident the Security Council will provide the landmark approval by November or December for an investment plan it submitted in March.
“We believe our investment plan with be accepted … we don’t think they will refuse it,” the Chairman told Reuters via a translator.
He said transparency has improved as LIA released audited financial statements in 2021, covering 2019. LIA aims to publish the 2020 numbers in the coming months and provide them annually from next year.
If the UN does not approve its investment proposals, Mohamed said “we will keep trying…we will keep asking and requesting.”
LIA has previously tried to actively manage its funds. However, in the turmoil following Gaddafi’s ouster, it at one point had dueling chairmen, backed by different factions within the country. A British court ruled in 2020 in Ali Mahmoud’s favor. In 2020, LIA said a Deloitte audit showed the freeze had cost it some $4.1 billion in potential equity returns.
Of its estimated $70 billion in assets, the fund has $29 billion in global real estate, $23 billion in deposits invested in Europe and Bahrain and $8 billion in equities spread over more than 300 companies around the world. It also has roughly $2 billion worth of matured bonds.
