Libya's SWF The Latest On The Prowl

While many Gulf sovereign wealth funds have had their fingers burned by the credit crunch and the global financial crisis, Libya is looking to take advantage of the opportunities that falling property prices and crumbling stock valuations have to offer. CFW expects it to become more aggressive in its investment strategy, pursuing assets across Western Europe, and potentially in the US. Moreover, while injections of Middle Eastern oil money have so far been welcomed by beleaguered European economies, given Libya's previously rocky relations with the West, major investments in strategic industries could spark political opposition in the US and Western Libya is a relative new-comer to the sovereign wealth fund scene. The Libya Investment Authority (LIA) was only created in 2006, and has a relatively modest US$70bn capital base (the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, for example, holds assets estimated to be worth anywhere up to US$875bn).

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