A London court of appeals has ruled that the current board of directors of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) and the decisions of the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord about LIA are legal.
LIA, the war-torn country’s sovereign wealth fund, said in a statement on Friday that it would take measures to remove the judicial guardianship and to tackle the tasks and assets under its authority, in addition to finishing the legal representation procedures at state financial institutions.
It also said that the British court had rejected altogether the allegations of the parallel parties that claimed legitimacy to represent the LIA.
LIA called for lifting the judicial guardianship of assets so that it can operate with and develop those assets as per the laws and the current sanctions system.
The fund was first hit by an asset freeze in 2011, via a United Nations Security Council resolution and those restrictions remain in place on most of its assets outside Libya.
The investment fund has tried in the past to persuade the UN to change its sanctions, including in 2017. In November last year, Libya’s foreign affairs minister Mohamed Siala outlined the problems the LIA faced because of sanctions, in comments to the UN Security Council. “We hope that the council will take the measures necessary to address the negative consequences of the sanctions regime as soon as possible,” he said.
While the majority of the LIA’s funds are subject to the UN asset freeze, just how much is involved is a matter of speculation. The last proper evaluation of the LIA’s portfolio was completed in 2012, a year after the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi was ousted from power. At the time, the LIA said it had $67bn in assets, most of which was in shares and bank deposits.
The US-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute now puts the LIA’s assets at $60bn, but the LIA itself is not sure.
Last March, British Commercial Court ruled for recognition of Ali Mahmoud Hassan as the legal Director of LIA.
