Libya’s sovereign wealth fund head plans to ask the United Nations to allow it to invest billions of dollars sitting idle in its accounts, after missing out on some $4.1 billion in potential equity returns during nearly a decade of sanctions.
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) was blacklisted in March 2011 because it was then controlled by the family of toppled ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
Its assets were valued at $67 billion in 2012, but LIA plans to update that in October after a review by its financial adviser Deloitte.
Sanctions have had a heavy toll on the LIA, with investment curbs meaning it had missed out on around $4.1 billion in potential returns if it had invested in line with the market average, chairman Ali Mahmoud Hassan Mohamed told Reuters.
The LIA also wanted to avoid negative interest rate charges, which had cost it around $23 million since 2011, he said.
Libya had previously asked the U.N. Security Council to approve a sanctions exemption for the LIA in 2016, but this request was turned down as the U.N. wanted to see a stable government in place before doing so.