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Abdulmagid Breish, the chairman of Libya’s $66 billion sovereign wealth fund, said it plans to hire external companies to manage about $11 billion of its assets under a restructuring plan.
The Libyan Investment Authority, valued at about $66 billion by Deloitte LLP, will split its assets into three distinct funds starting as soon as next year, Breish said in an interview in London.
“The LIA is preparing itself to come back to the international fold,” he said. “We will use best-of-breed fund managers, advisers and consultants,” he said, without specifying which companies will be invited to bid for the work.
The fund, established under former Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi, grew to be Africa’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund by the time he was deposed and killed in 2011.
Nigeria’s newly incorporated SWF has $1.5 billion in assets by comparison.
Some of the firm’s investments proved disastrous, leading to attempts to restructure deals, regulatory investigations and multi-billion dollar lawsuits.
Breish, a Libyan national, spent nearly 30 years at Arab Banking Corp., rising to deputy chief executive officer, before joining the LIA in 2013.
Under the restructuring, LIA’s assets will be divided between three funds. The Future Generation Fund will receive oil revenue.
The government can tap into the Budget Stabilization Fund and the Local Development Fund will invest in Libyan infrastructure including medical facilities, transport and education, Breish said.
The LIA directly owns about 550 companies, making up about half its assets, Breish said. Some of those will be wound down or sold, while profitable ventures will eventually be added to the Future Generation Fund.
Breish said the LIA was also overhauling its risk management, decision making, information technology and other internal systems.
The fund wants to “become one of the known, respected sovereign wealth funds, trusted by its own people, doing the job that a sovereign wealth fund is supposed to do,” he said.
